Bringing this year’s Spring Seasons events to a close, greeting card retailers are doing their utmost to maximise sales of Father’s Day, which falls this Sunday (June 16). Following on from decent sales for Valentine’s, a strong Mother’s Day and okey Easter, fingers are crossed that the nation shows its love for their dads this Sunday by buying and sending cards.
For some dads, the upcoming Father’s Day will be difficult for them, as they are grieving from the death of a child. Online card retailer, Thortful has answered the pleas to create a range of cards that can be sent to bereaved dads this Father’s Day. The Forgotten Fathers collection, follows on from the reaction Thortful received to its range of bereaved Mother’s Day cards that it offered this year and sold in aid of the Kicks Count charity.
“We weren’t prepared for the overwhelming response we received from the community of bereaved parents, it soon became clear that there was a forgotten group of parents out there who wished to use the day to honour their angel babies,” commented Andy Pearce, md of Thortful. Following the special Mother’s Day range, Katie Lillywhite, head of Thortful’s creative team said the company was “inundated with requests to create a range of bereaved Father’s Day cards. Kicks Count invited its social media community to compose verses that we could use to illustrate designs from our creators”.
The collection has its own landing page on the Thortful website (https://www.thortful.com/forgottenfathers) where alongside depictions of the cards are heartfelt comments, such as this from Rachel Whalen: “Every grieving parent wants to be seen as the loving parent that they are. When it comes to grieving fathers, I know they struggle because of people’s assumptions about how they grieve or if they grieve at all. I have watched my own husband deal with being forgotten. He is every bit the loving caring father that he would be if our daughter had lived. When I write for dads, I write for him. I want him to know that in a world where a father’s grief is often overlooked, I see him and I celebrate him.”
For each card sold from this collection, 100% of the profits will be donated to Kicks Count charity, that was created after the founder, Sophia Wyatt, gave birth to her precious daughter Chloe, stillborn. Chloe died just three days before her due date.
Clintons’ Research Celebrates Multi-tasking Dads
Meanwhile, Clintons has taken a fun slant to its Father’s Day PR this year, issuing findings of research which highlight how the role of our dads (and our expectations of them) have changed and how the greeting cards for their special day reflect this.
The survey, based on texts sent from offspring to their fathers, show how being a ‘taxi driver’ is the most common request from kids, followed by loaning them money, then shopping related tasks and food-linked wishes.
Dads, who in previous generations would have confined their practical support to cash, the odd bit of football and a chat about ‘the birds and the bees’ with their sons, are now called on to perform an array of tasks.
The top ten tasks (in order of appearance in text messages from kids) as highlighted by Clintons, are:
- Lifts 28%
- ‘Loans’ of money 17%
- Shopping 12%
- Food-related requests 11%
- Requests to borrow something valuable, eg, car 8%
- Requests to have friends over 7%
- Requests for help with DIY or tech 6%
- Tip-offs about damage caused to something at home 3%
- Alternative to Google 3%
- Advice on style and fashion 2%
As Nicola Miller, card buyer for Clintons points out: “A couple of generations ago relationships between kids and their dads were much more formal and dads on the whole were much less involved in their kids’ lives. Things have changed enormously and now dads are at the heart of the family as the task list reveals. On Father’s Day this year, it would be great if dads got a real-world vote of love and thanks alongside the to-do list.”
This changing role of paters are reflected in the Father’s Day cards Clintons is stocking this year, including adjusting roller blades, gardening, reading to children, loaning money, playing football, cooking, barbequing specifically, sailing, playing with the kids, flying kites, taking children, fishing and mending the car.
Top: Clintons’ PR approach this year is to highlight the changing roles of dads.
