Generally speaking women, particularly mothers, are seen as controllers of the purse strings and therefore the ideal target by marketers. Not that this is inaccurate - there are any number of studies to support this point. But marketers are making a mistake when, as they focus on women, they pander to outdated stereotypes lampooning men.

Ragu is learning this lesson right now, according to a post in Relevant Marketer. It launched a Facebook campaign called Mom's the Word on Dinner, implying that dads are less competent than moms in the kitchen. It is a video featuring mommy bloggers describing what it's like when their husbands cook dinner.

After the expected line of dishes - grilling or breakfast fare - the message becomes with 'Ragu's easy recipes they can increase their repetoire.' "On the surface, it's certainly annoying that Ragu doesn't recognize dads are more involved than ever with their kids, but I think the bigger issue was how they used Twitter to get the word out," Relevant Marketer writes.

"Apparently they messaged a bunch of people who they knew were dads and had blogs and active social media profiles."

Not all of the recipients found it so funny and some responded with negative comments.

Changing Demographics, Roles

Certainly Ragu is aware of the changing demographics in child and house care, as men assume more of these responsibilities. Indeed daddy bloggers are almost as coveted as mommy bloggers. "In general, dads have always gotten the short shrift when it comes to parenting, but in recent times, it's been different," said Jeffrey Sass, single parent and blogger for Dad-O-Matic. (via the New York Times).  He added that advertisers focus so much on mommy bloggers "because everyone believes the mother makes many of the buying decisions in the home, but in product categories like consumer electronics, it makes sense to go after dads."

Missteps with Bloggers

More than likely this is a case of a brand making a misstep as it tries to engage with consumer - and compete with all the other brands engaging with the same consumer. Another example is ConAgra, which recently invited several food bloggers to a dinner but didn’t tell them they would be eating a frozen dinner. ConAgra’s hope was that the bloggers would rave about the meal; instead many took to their blogs complaining about ConAgra’s sleigh of hand.