RUSH: This is a story again from the UK Telegraph. ‘Fathers should strip off their shirts before holding their newborn babies to aid the ‘bonding’ process, says a booklet funded by the Government. The pamphlet, which has prompted accusations about interference from the nanny state, also recommends that they should gaze into their baby’s eyes for short periods to develop the child’s brain. The booklet, Including New Fathers: A Guide for Maternity Professionals, has been published by Fathers Direct, a publicly funded charity that advises the Government on fatherhood.’ We actually need the government telling us how to raise our kids. ‘Look your baby in the eye.’ I bet nobody ever thought to do that on their own, did they? You let the social services people find out that fathers are taking off their shirts to hug little babies… wait ’til mom gets mad at dad, calls social services, ho-ho-ho-ho. You know that will happen. ‘Prof Frank Furedi, the author of Paranoid Parenting, said: ‘It is treating men as complete morons who can’t work out for themselves how to wash their child’s ears.”
It is treating men as morons. In fact, we’ve got the audio from the Lowe’s ad that we talked about on Friday that led to such stirring discussions on this program. Let’s go to audio sound bite number two. This is the audio from the Lowe’s ad. If you weren’t with us on Friday, what happened was that a guy called about this ad and said, ‘I’m sick and tired of these commercials making us men look like absolute idiots and brainless and so forth.’ I hadn’t seen the ad, so I had to take everybody’s word for what it said. This launched a very fascinating, as all discussions are here, discussion on advertising and what it means and how to watch it. So here’s the audio of the Lowe’s ad, which dovetails with this story from the UK treating men as complete morons.
WIFE: Honey, look, isn’t this tile perfect? It’s called Roman stone.
HUSBAND: Too hard to install.
WIFE: Nice detail.
HUSBAND: Intricate. Too hard to install.
WIFE: And this detailed border.
HUSBAND: Too hard to install.
LOWE’S WOMAN: By the way, it’s easy to install.
HUSBAND: Really?
MALE ANNOUNCER: At Lowe’s, we not only have a huge selection of tile, but we make it easy to find the right look for you.
WIFE: Well, what do you think?
HUSBAND: You were right, I was wrong.
MALE ANNOUNCER: Lowe’s. Let’s build something together. Come to Lowe’s now and get 20% off all special-order flooring. Now through July 8th.
RUSH: (Laughing.) Too hard to install, too hard to install, you were right, I was wrong. That’s funny.