Advertising Age Covers Our Volvo Campaign
February 28th, 2007 by Glenn Sacks, MA for Fathers & Families
Our Volvo campaign is the top story this afternoon at Advertising Age, one of the U.S.'s two leading advertising publications. The article is Male Activists Want Volvo to Award Ad Account to Euro: Slam Work of Review Contender Arnold as Being Anti-Father.
Male Activists Want Volvo to Award Ad Account to Euro: Slam Work of Review Contender Arnold as Being Anti-Father
By Jean Halliday
Published: February 28, 2007
DETROIT (AdAge.com) -- In what appears to be a first, a male activist group is petitioning Volvo not to choose Arnold Worldwide, Boston, as its new global agency of record, claiming that the shop has created ads for other clients that denigrate fathers.
National newspaper columnist and talk-show host Glenn Sacks is behind the push that started Feb. 27. His website, glennsacks.com, has a form letter to Volvo urging the Ford Motor Co.-owned brand "not to award the contract to Arnold Worldwide and instead award it to one of the other agencies, preferably Euro RSCG." The website lists names and contact information for Volvo officials in the U.S. and Sweden.
Mr. Sacks told Advertising Age this afternoon that 1,000-plus e-mails and faxes on the matter were sent to Volvo in the past 24 hours. Other male groups, including FathersandHusbands.org and Fathers and Families, are supporting the effort.
'Idiots and clowns'
Mr. Sacks said "a lot of us in the fathers' movement are upset" that dads are portrayed in advertising as "idiots, clowns," while "the wife is always right."
His site criticizes Arnold's purported anti-father work for Fidelity -- for example, a spot showing a man going to great lengths to parallel park in an empty parking lot -- while praising a TV ad that Euro RSCG did for Volvo. Mr. Sacks discusses his 2004 blitz against Verizon on the site, claiming success for getting the telecom giant to pull a TV commercial showing a bumbling father trying to help his daughter with her homework.
Richard Smaglick, co-founder of FathersandHusbands.org, said Verizon pulled the commercial, although he added the advertiser explained at the time the campaign had run its course.
A spokesman for Volvo Cars of North America confirmed the arrival of an undisclosed number of e-mails, faxes and a "handful of voice mails" on the matter. "All were very polite," he said.
Client has final say
The spokesman said he didn't understand why the pro-male groups were approaching Volvo about ads Arnold is doing for other clients. "It's not the agency that has the final say to determine what goes on air. It's the client."
Mr. Sacks said he's targeting Arnold because of the financial bounty involved in the review. If the effort is successful, "I believe it would have an impact on how other agencies portray men and fathers."
Read the full article here. To write a letter to the Editor of Advertising Age, go to editor@adage.com. To learn more about our campaign and to join us, click here.
Advertising critic Richard Smaglick of www.fathersandhusbands.org is an expert on the advertising industry and does valuable work monitoring anti-male stereotypes in television commercials.
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February 28th, 2007 at 7:48 pm
I am a father of 2 young children and I work within the advertising industry, and it should be noted, worked for Arnold Worldwide from 1995 to 2002. Your comment, “I believe it would have an impact on how other agencies portray men and fathers," just goes to show you, Mr. Sacks, are terribly misguided.
Are you seriously targeting ad agencies? Why not the clients that pay for and approve the work? Do you not have a sense of humor?
Targeting the agency is like punishing the addicted smoker - not the tobacco company.
Mr. Sacks - you have proven without a doubt - that you are an idiot.
March 1st, 2007 at 12:52 am
But the ad agency's addiction is making the ad agency rich at the expense of our families. If they were bashing blacks or gays would you hold them accountable?
March 1st, 2007 at 2:37 am
Tobacco companies make cigarettes.
Ad agencies make ad campaigns.
Smokers buy cigarettes from tobacco companies.
Companies buy ad campaigns from ad agencies.
Telling a company not to buy an ad campaign from an ad agency is no different than telling a smoker not to buy cigarettes from a tobacco company.
Arnold Worldwide should know -- they've produced several anti-smoking ads.
Now Arnold Worldwide is on the receiving end -- not as fun.
March 1st, 2007 at 8:44 am
Chris Jennings said:
"Mr. Sacks - you have proven without a doubt - that you are an idiot."
I don't think Glenn has proven that yet without a doubt. In fact, I'd be pretty darn glad if he keeps working to prove his idiocy, since that path seems to garner many positive results for fathers like myself.
Also, as a former player in the advertising industry, could you please give us some quick background on the history, development and application of the motif known as the "dumb dad?" I've had others in the industry tell me that that's an actual explicit advertising strategy.
Second, in your opinion, how does the portrayal of fathers in ads correlate with women as a targeted audience and also with the notion that women influence or execute a full 80% of consumer purchases and have since the 1940's?
Also, consider your own children here. Whether they're boys or girls, the messages being put out there right now are making it difficult to impossible for them to make reasoned decisions on marriage and relationships when they get older. You may want to consider that.
March 1st, 2007 at 9:09 am
Chris, you're not fooling anybody. We all grew up watching Bewitched reruns so we know exactly who comes up with the idea for the commercial.
The rest of us work in industries with a sense of ethics and morality. Sorry your life sucks.
March 1st, 2007 at 9:47 am
i think i will address these comments - in no particular order:
-richard s. = i have no idea what you are talking about. are you a communist?
-CJ P. = yes, i understand the correlation. i also know about 400 individuals - fathers included - who have been laid off from arnold over the past 2 years (many of whom are father's). this attack based on, what seems to me as a pansy "whoa is me" movement, is totally absurd, and by disrupting the process of fair competitioin, you could potentially prevent JOBS being developed for an area that has been particularly hard hit economically over the past few years.
-i have never been involved with a campaign where a strategy employed a 'dumb dad' approach. i have seen / heard / executed some very interesting strategies over the years, but never anything to target 'dumb dads'
-tim o = what positive result has mr. sacks done for you? do you really feel the agency is that powerful? aren't you - the consumer - the powerful person in this equation? do you own a volvo? do you think arnold could possibly tarnish the brand legacy that volvo has developed over many, many years of targeted , strategic positioning as a 'safe, family car?'
-jerry - unless you are passing out food to refugees i n the sudan - shut up. every agency i have worked for spends hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars on pro-bono work - and having worked on the truth account, which has been the most successful anit-smoking campaign in the history of this country, i say - you don't know what you are talking about. get back to carrying bags of rice to starving children.
March 1st, 2007 at 10:03 am
Ooh Ooh! I mislead people and prey on the known psychological defects of home sapiens but I do pro-bono work! I'M A GOOD GUY!!!!!! ADVERTISERS ARE GOOD PEOPLE!!! IT's THE PEOPLE THAT HIRE US THAT ARE SCUM!!!! AND THE PEOPLE THAT BUY OUR MESSAGE THAT ARE STOOOPID! It's Not Me, I swear it!!!!
pansy Chris, take your bigoted homophobia and jump in a lake.
Chris, I am sorry your life sucks and the industry you chose to work in sucks and that you are a bigot but it's really not my problem.
P.S. Lots of us help out in charities as part of work or at home. It don't give you a bigger dick around here.
P.P.S. No excuse for your gay bashing. And you can't use the "oh, I work for a company that helps others for free so I can gay bash" excuse. L4me.
March 1st, 2007 at 10:34 am
I posted a comment last night that was removed for some reason. But I want to say it again. Mr. Sacks is being hypocritical urging Volvo to award the account to an agency that is also guilty of producing spots your group is campaigning against. EURO RSCG produced a campaign for Summer's Eve depicting men as lazy and unclean. A woman asks her husband to put on a clean shirt so he takes his t-shirt off, turns it inside-out and puts it back on then gives that dumb "what?" look. I don't think there is an advertising agency out there that has nothing but politically correct, completely safe commercials on their roster. Mr. Sacks points out the Volvo spot Euro did with the dad and his daughter. It's a great spot and, as a father, I can totally relate. But Arnold produced a wonderful Father and Son spot for VW where the dad pretends to race his son on his bike while driving his Passat extremely slow. There's another spot where a man goes to pick up his grandfather to take him for a wonderfully freeing ride in his VW. Wait there's more, A child in the back seat ask his father what the hazard button is for and his dad playfully tells him it's a turbo button, presses it and pretends to blast off. Pretty good depictions of Fatherhood there, and I might add with diverse casting. Arnold isn't any more guilty than any other agency out there. Plus, remember, commercials are fictitious. They're not real.
March 1st, 2007 at 11:11 am
jerry - who are you and what moral high ground gives you the right to pass judgment?
March 1st, 2007 at 11:32 am
Oh! You're right Chris, I apologize, it's okay for you to be a bigoted homophobe then.
(You're teh one passing judgment on us, we don't give to charity or so you think so we're not strong enough to pick up your enormous codpiece -- in the meantime you blame everyone else for buying your product -- the clients and their consumers. Hey Man, I only make the meth, you're the guys that bought it and distributed it!)
March 1st, 2007 at 11:50 am
Chis said:
"-tim o = what positive result has mr. sacks done for you? do you really feel the agency is that powerful? aren’t you - the consumer - the powerful person in this equation? do you own a volvo? do you think arnold could possibly tarnish the brand legacy that volvo has developed over many, many years of targeted , strategic positioning as a ’safe, family car?"
I've owned five Volvos. My best friend, John, who is also a father's rights activist also drives a Volvo. If they start a campaign that makes Dads look like dolts, I'm considering a Mazda for my next car.
In fact, I do think that ad agencies wield a lot of power. Typically, they start with some cultural motif that will emotionially manipulate the consumer into wanting to buy something. When they find a motif that works, they develop and purify it and paste it across the culture ubitquitously until it either burns out or becomes an integral part of the conventional wisdom.
The dumb dad motif is one such.
I don't have a problem with once in a while showing some guy as an idiot. That's just a little comedy. The problem with the dumb dad motif is that you hardly see otherwise anymore. You guys have created a monster and we're simply trying to slow it down. Sorry you don't like it, but maybe you'd be better off recognizing it as a big change in the demographic that's beginning to occur.
For future reference, we will succeed, and sometime pervasive commercials showing dads as empowered parents will be as vogue as the commercial showing women as empowered career people. Recognize it now and be ahead of your time.
And yes, Glenn has done something for me -- maybe not directly, but at least in this case the ad industry is having to contend with a different point of view. They will of course not admit it, but they are. I work with Marketing people daily in my job. I know how it works.
March 1st, 2007 at 12:58 pm
tim - thanks for your thoughtful response.
March 1st, 2007 at 1:11 pm
jerry - by your own assumption, i am a: homophobic meth dealer that. although contributes to many charitable causes, doesn't posses the moral fiber to have an opinion on the matter. all because i used the word pansy - which is derogatory for homosexual, but also defined as "a weak, effeminate, and often cowardly man," which was my intended grammatical use of the word.
do you have anything intelligent to contribute?
you have a very closed mind. if you would like to continue your disparagement, please feel free to email me at jennings9900@hotmail.com - otherwise - bugger off.
March 1st, 2007 at 1:13 pm
You're welcome.
In my opinion, self control is the epitomy of masculinity.
March 1st, 2007 at 2:21 pm
Sir, you are a complete and utter moron who knows nothing about advertising, humor or fatherhood. The spots in question have nothing to do with the issues you represent. And by “represent”, I should say: use for your own misguided publicity. Your ploy to extend your 3.5 minutes of fame is ludicrous. Arnold has proven itself to be one of the world’s most accomplished business partners, and it’s work in the automotive industry is nothing short of astounding. Volvo should be making their decisions based on that, and nothing that any 2 bit blogger decides to say to get his name in the paper.
March 1st, 2007 at 2:50 pm
Yeah Chris,
You left out the part of the definition that reads: Offensive Slang
I assume you were merely trying to bolster the brand message identity of the cultural paradigmatic shifting word styles of "pansy."
But to me it just makes me realize not only are you a meth creating self important charity donating moral coward that works in an unethical industry that shifts blame to everyone else, but you are also a liar.
March 1st, 2007 at 2:52 pm
I apologize, I clearly meant:
homophobic gay bashing meth creating self important charity donating moral coward that works in an unethical industry that shifts blame to everyone else,
I do think you sound like a sushi-eating, latte-drinking, volvo-driving Ad executive (but not a liberal, mainly just a rich snobby elitist rationalizing yuppie snot.)
Am I far off?
March 1st, 2007 at 5:35 pm
Yeah big bad Arnold!!!
Consistently rated one of the 50 "Best Places to Work in Massachusetts" by Boston Business Journal.
Arnold is a company that gives new fathers two paid weeks of Paternity Leave!
Arnold also enables new fathers to work from home one day a week for 12 weeks!
Arnold also provides 20 days of paid emergency day care support with Bright Horizons Family Solutions one of the nation's leading providers of work-site child care.
This is on top of 15 additional days off including every second Friday during the summer, on top of the 10 standard vacation days for new hires. That is lots of time off for fathers to spend quality time with their families, let alone the 10 sick days, 3 personal days and generous health benefits.
Maybe Glenn Sacks does not realise that EURO RSCG is a sister company of Arnold under the French holding company HAVAS, so if this little stunt actually worked then it would be putting working American dads out of a job for French ones.
Havas of course would still profit either way.
March 1st, 2007 at 9:16 pm
Jerry - what if i told you i was gay?
March 1st, 2007 at 9:28 pm
Jerry - what exactly is unethical about advertising? are you some wonder of human achievement that can actually make all of your purchasing decisions without any outside influence, persuasion, demonstration or aspiration? reading your other stupid rants against adam zand, in reference to the adweek article - i wonder if you are a 'plant' on this blog, which would, in essence, be a form of marketing.
are you a father? are you married? do you vote? did you finish high school?
maybe you'll actually share with us your brilliant insight, pedigree and expertise as it relates to marketing since so far all you can seem to do is disparage all that you know nothing about.
except for the offensively slang word 'pansy.'
i'll just settle for calling you a coward. keep throwing your rocks and hiding. you, mr. sacks, and the rest of you 'man rights' idiots need to do your homework. you are way off base, uninformed and plain worong on this issue.
you lose. sorry.
March 1st, 2007 at 9:33 pm
I guess that would make you a
self-hating homophobic gay bashing pansy shouting meth creating self important charity donating moral coward that works in an unethical industry that shifts blame to everyone else, sushi-eating, latte-drinking, volvo-driving Ad executive (but not a liberal, mainly just a rich snobby elitist rationalizing guppie snot.)
Jebus man, you must give your therapist nightmares! (And a new boat every year!)
March 1st, 2007 at 9:44 pm
So what do we know? We have heard that Arnold is a father friendly company to work for, just not a company that puts out father friendly messages. We know talking about that is disturbing to some folks because a whole bunch of Arnold, or former Arnold employees have shown up to curse us all out.
These former Arnold folks apparently think they are better and smarter than us, and keep asking if we've voted or finished high school.
No one seems to have answered the question of why when women complain of advertising that demeans them, that men should not complain of advertising that demeans us.
And they don't seem to think they have an ethical problem in using the campaign's letter writing tool to write a letter that misrepresents who they are.
On the other hand, they are confused as to why some of us think that advertising is an unethical industry and want to know what we think is wrong about it.
Um, okay!
March 1st, 2007 at 9:47 pm
sounds to me like you should take a look in the mirror jerry. let me know when you want to participate in an intelligent dialogue.
March 2nd, 2007 at 4:18 am
Why are you men bashing each other?
I ,as a woman I found the Arnold Ad offensive towards men and embarrassing that women are used to ridicule men.
You, men who are defending Arnolds ad campaign ,do you like to be looked on as stupid and incapable as the ad implies? I definitely think ad campaigns should point out all the good fathers do for their children , not make them look like the dunce in the corner. Surely an ad would be more productive if it sends out good feelings about the products they promote. Thats how people decide to buy a product.
I am Swedish woman married to an American man who fought for 5 years to be reunited with his daughter whilst his ex alienated him and tried to make him look like a stupid, incapable, unreliable , deadbeat dad. The California courts did believe him ,not her and now he has legal custody ,full visitation and a wonderful relationship with his daughter.
The Arnolds Ad might appeal to women like my husbands ex but definitely not to me. I wrote to Volvo Head office in Swedish and will follow up with a phonecall with my views. I will also send this campaign to my family in Gothenburg who will forward it to other friends and family , many of who works for Volvo. Volvo is very family orientated and will definitely vet all Ad agencies suggestions for their next Ad.
Most Ad agencies have done a lot of great things but that does not rectify them ridiculing all the great men out there.
Thanks Glenn for all you do.
March 2nd, 2007 at 7:45 am
The whole objective should be to tell people why they ought to buy my product. So many ads do that. Why make any group, men, women, blacks, and so on appear to have negative traits? Up people, for crying out loud.
March 2nd, 2007 at 12:28 pm
People really need to lighten the hell up.
It's just an ad.
March 7th, 2007 at 6:37 pm
Riiiiiiiight. "It's just an ad/greeting card/show/play/movie/music video/greeting card/bumper sticker/T-shirt." Except you certainly can't find a similarly "humorous" ad/greeting card/show/play/movie/music video/greeting card/bumper sticker/T-shirt for men to enjoy that ridicules women (not that I'd favor that, either -- for you unwashed ad execs reading this, this is known as a "devil's advocate" argument).
If women were being targeted in this manner, all the people defending this garbage would rise up in protest against the sexism -- and rightfully so. But if men are the target, it becomes "you people need to lighten up." Depending upon who the target is, in fact, they'll vacillate between "that would be wrong!" and "lighten up!" that it's amazing they don't fall down.
Blackdragon: bless you for your support.
November 12th, 2008 at 6:58 pm
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