For those of you who missed this TV advertisement or poster, there is this ad campaign where a little girl is asked whether she prefers daddy or chips!

This is apparently a difficult choice for her, but when daddy pinches one of her chips she decides the answer must be that she prefers daddy to chips.

I just wondered how this advert escaped the wrath of that Commission which is there to promote equality between men and women! You might remember that last year they were offended by some Yorkie chocolate bars that had “not for girls” amusingly splashed across them (and every shop I asked confirmed that the girls bought this choccy much more than the boys!)

I believe they also objected to that advert where a major bank had a girl dreaming of a veil and a boy of material things. Why then is it ok in this advert to denigrate the role of the father in this way? By the way, I think it is only worrying because of the message it gives us about fast food (a point I want to develop later) but I do wonder if we have two weights and two measures when it comes to promoting equality between the sexes.

I mean the advert just would not work if it said “mummy or chips”, would it? Is this because we subconsciously assume the role of the mother to be pivotal to a family, where the fathers is only incidental, or only the breadwinner and not the carer? Isn’t that just as much of a silly stereotype as having a girl dreaming of a veil and a boy of a car?

And as such, aren’t we promoting a stereotype? After all, according to this Commission and all politically correct thought, modern dads are meant to help out like mums. Why then don’t they react to an advert which essentially minimises the role of the father in the family? I’m not at all offended by this advert, by the way, as I wasn’t by the Yorkie one either. But it does seem that with all the serious problems faced by men and particularly women in Malta (with finding a job where you are paid and treated decently!), that amusing adverts should not take up too much of the Commission’s time.

We don’t want thought police after all, and while I would like the media to be policed for racist or nasty stuff, advertising campaigns which reflect how we are – not equal and boring but different and sexy with it – should be allowed and should not be stifled in this way. Laughing at the differences between the sexes is very healthy too.

There is some point in glorifying differences too, after all.

The president of Harvard was recently attacked by feminists because he dared to suggest that there might be some biological reasons (and not just conditioning and advertisements etc) why women excel at certain subjects and men in others. There is a wealth of evidence to back this up of course, from one-day-old girls preferring photos of human faces, while boys prefer a mechanical mobile, to all the other basic differences that you really have to be a parent to witness. Boys and girls are different and equal – and thank God for it.

So men being less important for kids than mums is not really a nasty stereotype. It just reflects how we’ve evolved, and how mums everywhere do much more of the child rearing than the men, even when the women work. This doesn’t mean that dads are not important.

Indeed it is very worrying that a staggering 700 babies were born to single mums last year! Now this is high. And these figures do not include separated mums looking after their kids. These are not just a few accidents. Some are, of course, and some are because there are people in stable relationships who cannot marry (if one was married before) because we don’t allow divorce, but clearly many girls are also deciding that chips are much more important than having a daddy around, and feel absolutely fine about it too.

The following day we were told that that the problem of overweight children and adults is worse in Malta than in the US. Mind you we’re not alone! According to a report on the front page of The Malta Independent, Finland, Germany Greece, Cyprus, the Czech Republic and Slovakia are also the fatties of Europe.

So chip culture rules supreme, even in those countries which do not practically have a tradition of fast food as the Americans do.

I am sure this Commission which is there to promote equality between the sexes has noble intentions. But the truth is that the chips culture is doing us all far more harm than adverts which may be a mite sexist and thoroughly enjoyable.

I would far rather see bans on advertising fast foods to kids than the banning of adverts which promote stereotypes about men and women

Most of us, after all, do conform to the stereotypes, although most of us, (just about) still love daddy more than chips.