When my kids were very young, I read a book by Hugh O’Neill called Daddy Cool: How to Ride a Seesaw with Dignity, Wear a Donald Duck Hat with Style, and Sing “Bingo Was His Name-O” with Panache. The stories helped me through puréed carrots and sleep deprivation.
O’Neill also wrote A Man Called Daddy and Here’s Looking at You, Kids: The Crowded Romance of Mom and Dad. “Welcome to a world where apple juice is the nectar of the gods,” he wrote. “Welcome to a slow dance of night-lights and snow pants. Welcome to what would be a look at family life through rose-colored glasses, if the kids hadn’t sold my glasses to their friend Phil.”
In his stories, O’Neill recounts with humor and affection such fatherly moments as:
- reaching into the pocket of his suit for a business card and retrieving instead a body part belonging to Mr. Potato Head
- discovering something sticky in the VCR
- making a Halloween costume from a spaghetti strainer and a small rug from the hall
- desperately trying to find a moment alone with mom for some quick romance
- playing the part of a chicken in a fantasy game understood only by the child
The following Toyota TV spot reminds me of O’Neill’s perspective on parenting. Enter the Siennas:
Of course, the Sienna family and their Swagger Wagon have a Facebook page and their own YouTube channel.
Some find this hip-hop, gansta-rapping parody funny. A few find it racist!
More importantly, does it work? Does poking fun at parenthood sell minivans? Do parents, the target audience, embrace the joke — at their expense?
Yes. The answer is yes.
Parenting is a universal experience shared by many. One of the universal elements of this universal experience is the ability to not take oneself too seriously. As a dad, I laugh at myself constantly. We joke about our not-so-perfect parenting skills at playgrounds all across the country.
Trying to be cool is last on our wish list – well behind diapers, snot removal, nap time, etc. Toyota has captured this idea perfectly. Using satire to illustrate “our need to be cool” is not offensive, it’s tapping into a shared conversation of self-mockery that’s already in session. It’s brilliant.
Thanks, Jake. You sound like a cool dad to me. Do you own a minivan?
The Daddy Cool book and the Toyota campaign take an eminently uncool situation and make it cool via one’s personal attitude and approach. I think the strategy is brilliant as well. Just wondered how effective it is, as I’m a couple of years out of the target audience and made do with a station wagon during those years.
I don’t own a mini-van, but those commercials are persuasive — I sent links to a group of friends who all have babies of varying ages. I never do that. Ever.
I’m a designer/illustrator so I’m very aware of when I’m being marketed to. It didn’t matter. Humor trumps my distaste for shilling for a car company for free.