It’s a Girl

From the December 14, 2009, issue of the New Yorker comes this at-first-winsome-but-then-oh-so-depressing advertisement for Canon cameras: “Can I Stay Up Till Dad Comes Home Mode.”

Granted, our five-year-old Canon PowerShot Camera stinks at low-light situations, so an advertisement touting a PowerShot that does better with minimal lighting is, in theory, a good idea. But consider the various implications of the ad’s storyline:

1) Dad is The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, coming home from work so late that his elementary-aged kiddo has fallen asleep at the kitchen table.

2) Despite this absentee father figure, the kid wants so desperately to see him that he’s willing to fall asleep at the kitchen table.

3) The poor kid has created a crayon-and-watercolor for his dad. (Honestly, it even looks like a depiction of the dad — a guy in a suit — heading to work in a green skyscraper.) Pops took so long coming home from work that the painting had time to dry before the kid fell asleep on it.

4) The kid didn’t even eat his cookie or drink his glass of milk, he was so pooped.

5) Why is it the dad stuck at the office all day, and not the mom? OK, it’s possible that this tot has two daddies, one of whom slaves away for The Man all day while the other bakes cookies and pours milk. But given the old-school thinking of this ad, we’re gonna call the My Two Dads scenario unlikely.

6) Do the folks at Canon actually want dads to participate in their kids’ lives only through the medium of digital images? C’mon, parents. Put the camera down already!