Is the end nigh for the bumbling TV dad?

A new online commercial for Peanut Butter Cheerios has joined adland’s trend away from its longheld stereotype of the inept father.

This Cheerios dad is depicted as a hipster Superman, conquering the morning dash while spitting aphorisms like rap lyrics — “Being awesome isn’t about breaking the rules. It’s about making them” — and flirting with mom while serving her coffee.

“We never say no to dress-up,” the character proclaims. “We build the best forts. We do work-work and we do homework. We lead by example. We blow their minds.”

With an anthemic vibe and using dad as a verb, the digital ad, created by Tribal Worldwide Toronto, is gaining traction on father-focused blogs and websites, as is its #HowToDad tagline.

“Forever and especially over the last couple of years, we’ve seen a lot of emphasis on ‘Thank you mom’ and all that mom has done, and really and honestly dad plays an important role in the household as well, so it’s great to see brands taking note of that,” says Toronto father Bobby Sahni, a partner at Ethnicity Multicultural Marketing + Advertising.

This year has seen a string of ads from brands such as Dove and Tide highlighting dads as nurturers.

Advertising is just catching up with cultural changes, said Western Michigan University marketing professor Robert L. Harrison, who has studied single-father households.

“Most of what I like (in the Cheerios video) is it promotes a different type of masculinity; he’s still playful, and that’s the major role you see of fathers in ads, but he’s doing things within the household,” said Harrison, noting men are typically shown as aloof and only concerned with outdoor pursuits.

The ad hasn’t won everyone over, however. While Toronto parenting author and mother of four Kathy Buckworth appreciates the attempt at realism, she initially wondered whether the Cheerios promotion and its uber awesome dad was a parody.

“I think its overkill,” she said, citing its approach of “ ‘We’re going to try to correct every single ad that portrayed dads as idiots before us and ram it down your throat.’ I think it’s almost daring moms to be offended. Even if we don’t like the ad for any number of reasons, for example, dads do not tell hilarious jokes all of the time, we’re going to come across as this hard-core feminist mom.”

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Today’s Parent blogger and mother of three Emma Waverman said although the video “tried too hard to make the dad seem so cool and so perfect” she’s pleased to see the shift from “the bumbling dad and the know-it-all mom.”

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Celebrities like David Beckham and Brad Pitt give fatherhood a sexy spin, but Josh Stein, father of two and creative director of Tribal Worldwide Toronto, said the Cheerios lead was more inspired by comedian Louis C.K.’s witty divorced dad in the TV series Louie.

“Louie C.K., I think, has become a hero for dads,” said Stein. “He’ll take it into adult language pretty quickly, but he says some really funny, insightful stuff.”

The direction of the campaign and the launch of Peanut Butter Cheerios are meant to address a three-year decline in cereal consumption among men, said Jason Doolan, General Mills Canada’s director of marketing.

“The demographic that we’re losing is the middle-aged male in suburbia who has a long commute,” he said. “We know that as commuting time goes up and as thousands of new breakfast restaurants have opened up through quick-serve restaurants having breakfast offerings, its become perhaps easy pickings for them to get men who are already there for the burgers and fries at lunch.”