The Anatomy of Mother’s Day Ads

This mother’s day was very harsh on me. I realised that I am adopted. I called my mom to wish her happy mother’s day. She didn’t cry. I didn’t sense a wide smile showcasing her new molars nor a nod in slow motion. In fact, she mumbled something about me not calling her often, and that if Bill Gates had sat for CAT after engineering and completed his MBA, he wouldn’t have gotten divorced. In other words, my mother just failed the advertising maternity test.

Every year, every brand decides to ‘stand out’ with their same mother’s day campaign. Mom works hard. Goes unnoticed. Son/Daughter decide to do something special, but always in slow motion. Mom is moved, again in slow motion. Background music picks up, to accentuate the slow motion effect, just in case there are people in the world who are living their life in 0.5x and they happen to miss the whole slow-mo thing. All parties hug, in slow motion.

Literally every brand almost does the same damn Mother’s Day ad. This year was no different. I saw so many of them. Two stood out for me. One for Prega News. Brave of them because you can assume there is one big portion of their TG using their product hoping they don’t become mothers. Then, there was another brand for lumbar support. Even they made a senti ad of a son helping his mom fix her posture by sending her a lumbar support. There were violins playing as mom took her seat. She teared up, but I think that’s because her back was hurting.

I am not saying don’t do Mother’s Day ads, all I’m saying is not every brand should exploit my feelings for my mom on the same day. Only I have the right to exploit my mom for social media content with throwback pictures once in a while.