Ask any actively-involved dad what he thinks about the portrayal of papas on TV and you’ll get, at a minimum, a hearty groan. If you’re lucky, you may also receive a face full of rant. Good times.
None of us like the dufus dad thing continually perpetrated by Madison Ave. and Hollywood alike, and many of us fight the tired stereotype of the dad who is incompetent in every way both inside our own homes and on our blogs, but every once in a while a goofball dad wins, and Volkswagen’s new spot for the Passat qualifies in this category.
He looks to be a stand-up guy, just coming home from the office, and out there in the front yard coaching his kid on the mechanics of tossing a baseball. Problem is, his exaggerated shot put style is setting his son up for disaster, and quietly, that fact is hysterical to me. The narrator’s final punchline of “passing down something he will be grateful for” is subtle genius too. Can something be both subtle and patently ridiculous at the same time? I think so, and I think that is what makes it work for me.
What do you think of this Volkswagen Passat commercial: hilarious absurdism or demeaning to dads?
