[bourbon]

This has been going on for years. I'm only surprised that it took people this long to start complaining about it.

[arizonarachel]

I have noticed how companies usually portray the man as a complete bumbling idiot who is only saved by his loving, patient, understanding wife.

While, I can sort of see the appeal to women (maybe lesbians?) of these ads, I think they are a disgraceful way to try to sell products. Men have money, too.

[finnigan2]

"This has been going on for years. I'm only surprised that it took people this long to start complaining about it."

- You're right, and even more strange is that most of the writers/developers for these ads are themselves white males. My guess is that they wanted to add a little humor to the ads and, having been made shy about using the females because of complaints from the feminazis, they settled on the white males. After all, the male has big broad shoulders and can handle the ribbing, right?
Unfortunately, after years of this and other societal factors, the self image of white males has been degraded. One outcome is that they are dropping out of high schools at an accelerating rate and the male/female ratio at universities has now dropped to about 40:60.
I think adult white males have now become aware of these dangers and the role that ads may be playing in contributing to this problem.
Thats why I think we'll see more and more men speaking up about the white male image being shown in too many ads these days.