BUMBLING DADS: Here’s a new manifestation of a problem noted here a while back:

One of the company’s ad shows a computer-illiterate father trying, and failing, to help his daughter research a school project. As the girl gets exasperated, her mother chimes in, telling hubby to leave the girl alone and go wash the dog.

Joe Kelly, head of Dads and Daughters, said the commercial sends the message that fathers are dolts and second-class parents.

Sacks said Verizon would never run the ad if the genders were reversed.

Another Verizon ad shows a father giving his daughters cell phones. When they are disappointed that he mentions more family talk time, their mother mentions they can also talk to friends. The girls hug her, leaving the father standing on his own.

It seems to me that there’s actually less of this in ads than there was a few years ago — but that may just reflect the sharp decline in my television-watching.