Mother's Day Marketing

The second Sunday of May is celebrated as Mother’s Day in America. It is easy to lose track of this day if you don’t live in America. But if you do, it is impossible to forget.

The annual ritual of honoring the mother in your life (be it your mother or your wife) intuitively seems a private event, something akin to a birthday perhaps, taking time to celebrate the life of a person who is important to you. Mother’s day however, is big business. It is not celebrating the person, but the role of “mother” in a woman’s life. The advertisements and reminders start weeks in advance. Newspaper supplements devoted to special sales for “Mom” with glossy photos seduce you into purchasing that piece of jewelry, that gadget, that item of clothing that she cannot live without. There are special offers for “Mother’s Day Brunch” at most restaurants. You can gift flowers, facials and fitness club memberships to Mom. I burst out laughing when I saw an ad from “Vasectomy Center”. I wondered what special they were offering when my sister-in-law helpfully replied that they ran a similar ad for Valentine’s Day.

Mother’s Day was setup to be a national day to emphasize the role of women in their families, passed as a resolution by the US congress in 1914. This was the culmination of a massive effort by Anna Jarvis, daughter of Ann Maria Reese Jarvis, a woman who is well-known as a humanitarian and revered for her work with women’s organizations. Ann Maria organized a series of Mother’s Day Work Clubs in the state of Virginia in the mid-1800s to raise awareness of health and sanitation issues among women. She was active in providing necessary support during the Civil War while mourning the death of her own children to disease. One of her daughters, Ann Jarvis took upon herself the cause of establishing a day, not just in the state of Virginia, but all over the US, as a tribute to her mother and to commemorate the hard work of mothers everywhere.

Today Mother’s Day is an important day mainly for greeting card companies, chocolate manufacturers and florists. For most others, expectations and disappointments abound. Not just on the part of mother’s who are not remembered but also by those who do. If it is difficult to please anyone, it is impossible to please your mother. This truth is universally known. However, each year, millions of people try this impossible feat. Little children have it easy. Every effort is appreciated, every mistake is ignored. Grown children are the ones who suffer. And if you are a mother yourself and have a mother to please, prepare for double surprises (or disappointments, as the case may be).

So this is a day that can be a joyous celebration of motherhood, for the lucky ones. They are the ones rewarded with breakfast in bed by little ones, the ones who get coupons from their teenage kids offering to clean the house (or at least their rooms), the ones in retirement homes who gets calls from their middle-aged offspring. Some families celebrate with a lunch or dinner gathering. Some fly thousands of miles to visit. Others watch the marketing blitz with a wistful look as they qualify for such excesses.

This year, all of Seattle was fortunate to receive the best gift for Mother’s Day from Mother Nature herself; a day of clear spring weather, showering all with the right ingredients for nurturing-warmth, light and love.

Happy Mother’s Day.