Verizon Bombarded By Protests Over Anti-Father Ad

(Los Angeles, CA)- Nearly a thousand angry parents and grandparents deluged Verizon Communications with calls and e-mails yesterday, protesting a Verizon DSL commercial called "Homework" which they say denigrates fathers.

The commercial depicts a father trying--and failing--to help his young daughter with her homework. The daughter, annoyed by her father, looks to her mother to get the father to leave. The mother tells the father to go wash the dog, commands him to "leave her alone,” and then yells at him when he is slow to comply.

The protesters were called to action by nationally-syndicated radio talk show host Glenn Sacks, host of His Side with Glenn Sacks.

Sacks told listeners that he "doesn't think Verizon means any harm" but that "like many... they have developed...a moral blind spot towards disparaging males." He added:

"Research shows how indispensable fathers are to their children's well-being....it is tremendously damaging to convince kids that their father is an idiot or that fathers are worthless."

Sacks initiated the campaign after being contacted by Betty Barker, a Texas grandmother who had been rebuffed by Verizon when she complained about the ad.

Michael McCormick, Executive Director of the American Coalition for Fathers and Children, says "our culture should be long past portraying men, and particularly fathers, as fools a la Homer Simpson. Verizon claims Governance Principles based on 'core values of integrity and respect'. We would expect that their public communications would better reflect these beliefs."

Sacks' Los Angeles-based show, which also airs in New York City, Boston and New Jersey, is known for its successful listener campaigns. Earlier this year the show's campaign against children's products bearing the slogan "Boys are Stupid--Throw Rocks at Them" received wide media coverage, and knocked the products out of 3,500 stores worldwide--95% of their total retail distribution.

Hollywood media guru Michael Levine, founder of Levine Communications Office, believes that companies moved quickly to pull the offending products because of a new fear among businesses that anti-male marketing and products will provoke a consumer backlash.