Choosing to become a parent means accepting a drastic change in one’s life. If a female ever chooses to be a mother and isn’t adopting; it means diligently accepting the uncontrollable drastic physical and emotional changes. And as if becoming a mother wasn’t a tough decision on its own; the confined definitions of the roles and responsibilities of being a mother compounds the difficulties even more. The conservative notion in any patriarchal society defines that a mother is solely responsible for the child, except for financial responsibility sometimes.
Being singly responsibly for a newborn can be taxing for any person. A newborn is entirely dependent on its caregivers. Compounding to the difficulties of a female in a traditional family means accounting for the needs of oneself, the adult members of the family and the newborn without any external help.
While all can’t be fixed overnight, here are an example of ads by brands who dared to take baby steps in breaking away from traditions.
Phillips
Phillips discusses the challenges and responsibilities of motherhood, focused specifically on breastfeeding and care required during that time. Doing it all alone can be tough. From the survey results they took from Momspresso, 70% of women found breastfeeding challenging. An extra pair of helping hands can be in aid when the mother is looking for amenities that are out of her reach. Be advertising for a whole line of products designed especially for new mothers and babies; they urge to distribute responsibilities. New mothers can enjoy some downtime of their own. Furthermore, fathers should participate in child care since a child isn’t and shouldn’t be the responsibility of one parent.
FirstCry
Being a good enough parent to your child is challenging on its own; especially if you are new to parenting. Every child is unique in their way and hence there can be no universal guide to becoming a good enough parent. It is mostly a matter of trial and error under a backdrop of well-meaning intentions.
FirstCry’s #FussyIsImportant is recognition and appreciation for all mothers that are conscious of their child and its safety and well-being. Being seen and dismissed as overbearing and overprotective by others, they appreciate that mothers who take the efforts to go above and beyond for so-called small things; despite the onlookers’ judgement.
PregaNews
While this belief may not apply to everyone; it is still a popular wish to hope for a boy child over a girl child. Often the families that do believe in this concept, will pressurise the mother and blame her for the ‘unwanted’ offspring. To try to disable this idea, PregaNews made a progressive ad in 2019.
An expecting mother and mother-in-law who were deciding names for the unborn child are interrupted by a doorbell. Asking the daughter-in-law to ease up, the mother-in-law opens the door to find the group of transgender women. Knowing the fuss around the gender of the unborn child, the woman showers her with the wishes of a baby boy in hopes of winning a reward. As per tradition, the mother-in-law does fetch her a sum of money. Upon receiving the sum, the woman chants her wish again. The mother-in-law retorts this time. She calls out her bias against the girl child and questions her morality. She challenges her views and tells her instead to wish for a healthy delivery with no complications during the process instead.
A few months later, the same group of women come back again to greet the newborn baby. The mother-in-law smirks and proudly announces that the newborn child is a girl. As she was pleased with the condition of the daughter-in-law and her child, she decides to gift a boosted sum this time. The woman stops her from fetching her money and offers her own sum of money as a gift for the newborn. She responds by saying how she thinks her granddaughter is immensely lucky to be born in the house of a woman with such progressive values.
Nikes
Nikes 2021 ad to roll out their maternity line of sportswear was done with a diplomatic belief and thoughtful tribute to mothers who are or continuously dream of becoming an athlete.
The ad features pregnant and new mothers. Most of them, training or are competing, or have competed in world-class sports.
Nike’s point of view is that any woman who has been or is a mother and has been through the tremendously painful and challenging period of pregnancy. They have pushed through the emotional and physical toll on them. And, if one can do that they can push through any other real-world challenge; and that could include becoming an athlete.
