Dive Brief:

• Forty-two percent of dads in the U.S. use Pinterest, including 47% with a household income of $100,000 or more, according to a Pinterest analysis provided to Marketing Dive. Dads are 3x more likely to have shared boards than the average male user. 
• Millennial dads overall spend 2x more time than dads from 1965 on housework at 9.8 hours per week and nearly 3x more time on childcare, or 7.3 hours per week. There has been a 450% increase in dads searching for DIY projects to do with their kids, Pinterest said. Other findings show that dads make one out of three meals in their households, and they are 1.2x more likely to search Pinterest for healthy recipes than other male users. 
• Dads are also more likely to search for home gadgets than other users and conduct 3x more searches for smart-home technology. Dads are 2x more likely to search for tech gadgets, 4x more likely to search for camping gear and outdoor ideas, 7x more likely to search for kitchen appliances and 3x more likely to search for DIY home projects. 

Dive Insight:

As marketers continue to evaluate portrayals of gender in advertising, they should take care to depict parents in more modern roles, with dads increasingly acting as caregivers that research and perform tasks like cooking and DIY projects to do with their kids. Seventy-four percent of millennial dads have reported they think advertisers and marketers are out of touch with modern family dynamics, a Saatchi & Saatchi NY survey found. The study revealed that 85% of dads say they know more than people give them credit for. 

Several brands are updating their portrayals of fathers — often negatively dubbed as "dadvertising" — to be more nuanced. Disney last year said it would stop using dad stereotypes in its marketing and urged other brands to follow suit. The initiative followed internal research that found a major disconnect in how dads see themselves versus how they're portrayed in the media and in ads. Dove's Men+Care line of products tackled the issue of authentically portraying dads with a campaign called #RealDadMoments, and Cheerios took a similar approach with an effort called #HowToDad, per Hubspot. 

Consumers tend to reward brands that break down gender stereotypes in these ways, with 36% reporting they like brands more when ads go against stereotypes and 25% reporting they're more likely to purchase from those brands, according to Choozle.