Aug 1st, 2006
Bold Co-Parenting
The Ford Company has a collection of ads running with the tag line “Bold Moves.” Including this one:
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Mom, Dad and two kids are in their Ford Vehicle on a road trip. See the happy family, making memories that will last a lifetime. At the end of the trip, the dad steps out with his suitcases, but the mom stays behind the wheel. The kids jump out to hug their dad. Dad looks at Mom and says, “Thanks for inviting me.” She is calm and pleasant when she says, “Sure.” The kids jump back in the car, since we now know that Mom and Dad no longer live together. Dad tells the kids he’ll see them next weekend.
The commercial ends with the declaration, “Bold Moves. They Happen Every Day.”
[UPDATE 8/18/06: The commercial is available here via Google Video.]
Immediately I thought, wow that is a bold move. Divorce and road trips don’t mix.
But I guess I had forgotten that my mom and dad in the car with my brother and me was quite “normal” in my family post-divorce. One road trip was from Minnesota to New York, so I’m not talking short trips here. As late as my senior year in high school, my mom and dad and I drove 12 hours to go to the memorial service for my maternal grandmother.
Perhaps the true “Bold Move” is not so much that a divorced couple is co-parenting peacefully, but that Ford has chosen to tell the 30-second story of a post-nuclear family, even in the shadow of the hyper-conservative American Family Association’s campaign to boycott the company.
That is a very amazing ad. Thanks for pointing it out.
I JUST saw that commercial for the first time last night! I don’t watch tv, normally — haven’t in three years — oh, wait, I told you that before, because that’s what motivated you to give me the videotape of “W&G” (which I watched twice, by the way! Thanks!!!) — ANYhoo, I am currently staying in a hotel, however, where there is a TV with many channels, and I am on a lil’ TV binge, here, seeing all the things I never got to see before! Specifically, there are some great commercials out these days — I’ve laughed more at commercials, I think, than I have at any show I’ve seen. That road trip one was really interesting. I also loved one that had cell phone users talking like auctioneers to save minutes.
Where am I right now, you may ask? I’m in Columbus, about to perform DTMMMLF? as part of the Columbus GLBT Theatre Festival. Wish you were here!! In fact, why aren’t you? Why haven’t you written FLM into a one-woman show yourself, silly?!?? You’d be in this festival before you could BLINK!
xox