The Olympics have been on for a week now (really, only a week!), and even with all the hub-bub over tape delays, people are glued to their televisions at all hours to see the world compete in everything from archery to wrestling (there was no sport starting with a z, boo hoo). It got us wondering, as we always do elsewhere, how the Olympics would honor dads.

After all, there have got to be a whole lot of Olympians that were coached by fathers, carpooled to their practices by fathers, or at least bought equipment by fathers…right? So, that should translate into viewership and consumers – meaning dads watching the Olympics with their little hopefuls, watching all of the ads, saying “son and/or daughter – tomorrow, we’ll buy one of those products in the commercial.”

Well, we watched, and watched, and then watched some more. At times, we were watching two events picture-in-picture on television, while streaming another on our phone and another on our computer (and another on our laptop)! We sucked up almost everything the Olympics put out there, except for the really long bathroom break we took during equestrian jumping.

We found: the Olympics have definitely been sold to mom this time around, but dad hasn’t been completely forgotten. Really, there’s been one big offender that’s forgotten dads, but we saw it coming and expected it. We’ll explain.

This commercial’s been floating around since the Oscars, but we let it go just to create a false sense of security. But, it’s been long enough, and Hyundai had its fun. Time to die.

Hyundai, your Azera commercial “Modern Life” does not depict modern life at all, propagates the untruth that fathers are incapable parents and cooks, and is insulting to mothers. So shame on you.

We like to check in on the state of “dadvertising” often. Coming out of the holiday season, one where advertisers typically hope to use the theme of family to trick you into buying their products, we thought we’d share some of the commercials we’d seen and weigh-in on how dads are looking in commercials.

I don’t want to blow the surprise ending for you, but dads are lookin’ okay. Things might be turning up for dadvertising – and though there’s still a long way to go before dads are looking like smart consumers on television, we’re pleased to say that it’s not all bad.

Last Tuesday, “The Official Blog of the National Fatherhood Initiative” gave us some shocking news – so shocking that it took us a week to post it.

From a recent survey, Chevy suggests that dad is the “Carpool King.” The survey, by Harris Interactive, found that, most interestingly, 80% of U.S. fathers with children age 17 or younger “take an active role in daily family life,” and better than 70% of those drive their kids to school, daycare and/or extracurricular activities.

Chevy, by the way, is making a big push for fathers. Just yesterday, we mentioned their father-friendly commercial for the Traverse. And if they’re commissioning a survey about fathers and carpooling, you’d better believe Chevy’s making a move for fathers.

It’s interesting that although when we think of carpooling, we think of the “soccer mom,” we might see a shift soon – not only on the road, since that’s already happening, but in our perceptions of caregivers.

I don’t know how long Yoplait’s commercial for Go-Gurt has been around – not long enough, evidently – to be up on YouTube. The commercial features a put-together-looking dad making lunch for his kid. Signs around the kitchen let dad know to include Go-Gurt in his kid’s lunch. Finally, arrows in the fridge point directly to it, and the dad smiles, grabs a Go-Gurt and hands his lunch to his kid. The kid asks if dad remembered the Go-Gurt and dad pulls a Napoleon Dynamite and says something like “of course…duh.” Then you’re slapped across the face with their tagline: “Dads who get it, get Go-Gurt.”

Oh…do we? Could it be – fathers actually getting a positive representation in a commercial?