Papa, dad, pops or Sir, a father is perhaps the first person a child idolises or looks upto as his superhero. Remember the line from the Dhara cooking oil ad, ‘My daddy strongest’? While the honesty, strength and power of the Indian man, especially that of the father, has been highlighted time and again in advertisements; his human side or imperfection is also being used to drive home brand communication in recent times. An ad like the recent Bombay Dyeing one where the teen daughter buys trendy sheets for her newly divorced father, teasing him with the tagline, ‘Aapne divorce liya hai, sanyas nahi’. Irreverent, humorous and slice-of-life, it’s a story of many single fathers in the contemporary milieu. With leading male actors endorsing grooming products and the new age ‘sensitive’ man becoming sexier for women, the portrayal of fathers in commercials is also undergoing a radical transformation. On the occasion of Father’s Day, we take a look at this evolution:

Irrfan Khan plays a stressed out dad who does the moonwalk for his kids in the 7 Up commercial