Commercial Complaint #2 -- Just For Men

Okay, I know that there are men who cannot accept they are going bald or that they have managed to acquire gray hair. I understand that there is a large market for such people.

But what I cannot grasp is the portrayal of graying men as insecure, pathetic losers who cannot find love or even manage their lives without dyeing their hair some youthful color (which basically means not gray). In one awful commercial, two daughters lovingly tell their father “It’s time,” and “help” him improve himself by making him use the product. Then we see the guy with an attractive woman and the girls are satisfied they have fixed their father. Everyone is better off because the guy did what his children told him to.

Am I the only one who thinks this is wrong? I don’t like having gray hair myself, but it is a crazy world if we really believe that only young looking men are winners. Never mind the fact that hair itself has no bearing on things that matter, like parenting or being a husband.

So much is taught in today’s schools about tolerance. And that is good. But when the young cannot tolerate their aging parents based on hair color, I begin to doubt. Of course, it is the parents first who must teach that even Dad can be different from what society approves of and he is still worthwhile no matter what is on the top of his head.

There’s irony. I’d love for the father in this commercial to tell his kids they are shallow and demeaning. But I guess that wouldn’t sell anything—except reasonable values.