Mothers’ Day this year got more attention than Valentine’s Day, for sure. There were ads, more ads and yet more ads on and around last Sunday, the day dedicated internationally to moms, by brands that ranged from bed-sheets to noodles to an insurance brand to a pipes company, and more. Finally, I stopped counting. Most of the ads were much-too-much of a sameness. Flashbacks. Nostalgia. Sacrifices. Moist eyes. Sad songs. Evocative poetry. Basically, portrayals ranging from ‘mere paas maa hai’ 1970s kind of tear-jerkers to modern day super-moms who are always in 24*7 ‘do-or-die’ mode.
The one ad however that stood out amongst the clutter is surprisingly an ad by an ad agency - WATConsult - the digital and social media agency from Dentsu Aegis Network. #FlauntTheGap is based on the insight that only 27 per cent of women return to work after a pregnancy hiatus. The primary reason for this is the ruthless nature of the competitive corporate world. New moms are immediately shot down with prejudiced judgment.
WATConsult encourages women to #FlauntTheGap in their resume, to state the toughest job, the job of a mother with utmost pride. Interestingly, the agency has also altered its own maternity policies to coincide with Mother’s Day, by granting 6 months of maternity leave, extendable by 6 months of flexible hours. Ad agencies are normally very shy of advertising themselves or about themselves. Which is why the WATConsult ad is refreshingly different both in context and content. Bold. Purposeful. Empathetic. Empowering. Well done guys!
Another ad that caught my attention was from Bio-Oil by Marico, featuring celebrity moms Sania Mirza and Neha Dhupia. As part of the #UnstretchedJourney campaign, expecting mothers were invited for a special video shoot of their pregnancy journeys with Mirza and Dhupia. The celebrities and the mothers talk about a range of topics right from their fears and anxieties to the unconditional love they have for their baby and how the experience of motherhood has changed them for life. The ad is nice. It is progressive, it is modern in outlook. A good creative execution for moms and soon-to-be moms for
Mother’s Day.
The ad that left me a little bewildered was Welspun’s #NoOtherLikeMother ad conceptualised by 21N78E Creative Labs which opens on a mother sprucing up her son’s room and ensuring that every nook and corner of the room is clean, as the son is asthmatic. Eagerly awaiting her son’s return home after 3 years, she is intrigued by what special secret the son wants to share with her.
Well, the son arrives with a male friend in tow and introduces him to the mother as his ‘partner’, but soon clarifies that the partner is really his ‘life-partner’ and they are engaged. The son who was bracing himself, breathes a sigh of relief when the mother is upset, but not because he is engaged to a boy, but because he did not share this news with her earlier!
The ad itself is quite mundane despite the presence of Zarina Wahab who plays the mother. But it is the gay theme that had me a bit confused. On a Mother’s Day ad why was it really required? There could surely be other mainstream surprises? I think LGBT is the new fad for content writers… one that has shock-value, and one that few can openly oppose or criticise lest they be seen as prudish. Frankly, an ad with no real purpose. Wasted.
And yes, there have been ads this past week by Maggi noodles, iD Fresh, Wakefit, SBI Life, Reliance Smart, Biba, Epson, Gits, Hopscotch, Parle G, Sunfeast, Fisher Price and even Finolex pipes, all for Mother’s Day. Most of them mediocre, repetitive and uninspiring.I repeatedly go back to the one question that always troubles me, in fact torments me: how genuine are these ads? Why have all these brands suddenly been galvanized by this sudden love for moms?
The Finolex ad, for example, is in support of the Mukul Madhav Foundation, presumably the CSR face of the company. The communication is a complete tear-jerker focused on mothers with special children. Laudable for sure, but how come the company hasn’t talked of any such initiatives before? It has earlier been running special ads to celebrate World Plumbing Day. From there to Mother’s Day is a tectonic shift. To me it looks like just an attempt at brand-buttering … and that needs no explanations.
The Maggi noodles‘ First Cook’ ad wherein the mother encourages her son to prepare for life and be independent is at least real. I can’t say the same for Parle G or Sunfeast. The narratives in both are stretched and add no real value to either the brand or to the moms they profess to salute. And that is what I term brand-flatulence.
(The writer is an advertising and media veteran)