General Mills finds the Smart Dads Missing on TV

I’ve been grousing for a long time about the way advertisers (and sitcom writers) portray fathers as buffoons and ignorant slobs who must be instructed by their children when they are not being utterly emasculated by their wives, to whom they must obediently kowtow.

So, kudos to General Mills and whoever has their Cheerios account:

How refreshing is that? A smart, easygoing dad who is involved with his family and has a sense of humor. I see a lot of my husband in that guy. And I love the energy of the ad, the way the camera flies — there are very few cutaways, so the thing has momentum.

It’s not the first time Cheerios has managed to put a great, involved dad to the fore:

Good on ya, General Mills. For 30 years we’ve had Cheerios in our cabinets. My husband used to share them with our sons, slipping them one-by-one across the highchair. Thanks for noticing the good dads in our midst.