Is there an emoticon for just staring in disapproval and mild disbelief? Wait, there is ಠ_ಠ

Limited yet again to domestic service by an ad. Boo Tide!

those commercials have been pissing me off all week.

Apollo Ohno just broke the record for most medals won at a winter olympics, and he was raised almost entirely by his father. I doubt he can relate to this ad campaign.

I do most of the laundry but because of my shoulder dislocation, my wife hangs up most of the stuff than can't be dried. We both fold and put it away.

Can I still use Tide ?

I've been doing my own laundry since I was about 12, so neither parent does it for me these days.

I don't use regular Tide anyway since they use dyes and scents in it that irritate my skin.

Well, if this was a Tide commercial (or any other mainstream commercial, TV show, or similar mass-media product), Dad might do maybe 25 pounds of laundry, but he'd gripe about it so much that Mom would wind up promising never to emasculate him thusly again.

Somehow I find myself being equally annoyed by the vagueness. 5,000 pounds of laundry over what period of time? A lifespan? A year?

The "sequins" joke misses the mark for me as well. And why are we infantilizing the athletes again? Overall, unfunny, ineffective and annoying.

I'm glad that this got posted. I've been hating the P & G ads during the Olympics. It's insulting to all the supportive men who have helped these Olympic athletes.

But it's also insulting to the women. Thanks for doing the athletes' laundry? That's it?

Well, you know us wimmenfolks can't do any of the "important" stuff, like teaching them to spit or suchlike. We are relegated to the stuff anyone could (but would rather not) do like laundry, transportation and nutrition.

This reminds me of something that happened when my son was in 2nd grade. Every day during the winter he went to school wearing a sweatshirt over a t-shirt. Every few days he would come home with some of the sweatshirts.

One day the teacher had them clean out there cubbies and my son needed extra bags for all his sweatshirts. The teacher counted nine sweatshirts and said,"Doesn't your mom wonder where all your sweatshirts are when you do the laundry?"

My son looked at her like she was crazy and said,"My mom doesn't do the laundry. That's my dad's job."

The teacher told me should would never make an assumption like that again.

... Aren't most Olympians (outside of women's gymnastics) adults? Why are their mothers OR fathers doing their laundry? And as though those sequins could go in the machine anyhow. Hello hand washing (or more likely, dry cleaning)!

All the P&G commercials drive me nuts, but most of all it's the one where they line up at the start as kids rather than adults, and it says something like "their moms still see them as kids" or whatever. For me, that's always been my dad, and what really started out as a lovely commercial made me frown.

They had such a cool opportunity to make something modern - "proud supporter of families of all kinds who love to see their kids succeed" - and made it boring.

As an aside, it has been cool to see the families supporting their athletes in the TV coverage - it really has been moms, dads, brothers, sisters, friends, fellow athletes, communities, even entire countries with athletes winning their first medals for their countries ever. THAT is what P&G missed in their commercial.

The fact is, most buying of household products is done by women, so the ads are going to be targeted towards praising womens' use of these products. Sociologically, it may paint a sexist picture, but the reality is that the advertisers only care about raking in the dollars, not making a sociological observation.

P&G the official sponsor of moms.
I love the comments, so I'll just keep my unmanly opinions to my dish doin self.

p.s. Thanks to all parents who love and support their kids & each other.