It advertises their follow on milk (Which we use, big fan of the product!) and shows a series of Mothers going about the daily struggles of life with a baby - from the young mother who has just got her baby ready to go out and sniffs his nappy to discover that he needs changing again (it's happened to us all!) to the mother relaxing in the bath only to find a rubber ducky in a rather uncomfortable place....
The advert is fun, it reflects the daily struggles of motherhood and it's closing phrase of "Trust us, you're doing great" is a nice little touch....in fact it almost brought a tear to my hormonal, over-tired eyes the first time I saw it.
But then I realised....nowhere in that advert are fathers mentioned.
The voice over talks about SMA's many years of producing baby products, and how well they understand Mums...the entire focus of the campaign is on Mums.
But don't Dad's struggle to adjust their lives when they become parents too?
Doesn't a father need the reassurance that he is also doing great?!
One night while chilling out watching some TV, after he had spent the last hour battling to get Tyne down to sleep after he had bathed him and given him his supper - Jon commented on the advert without any prompting from me....saying simply "Oh that's nice, what about me?!"
Surely in this day and age, where the notion of a woman's place being in the home and where family structures are more varied than they have ever been before - isn't it just a little outdated to direct an entire ad campaign purely at mothers? Insinuating that only mothers are working hard to raise their children and are all doing a great job of it?
Would it have been such a stretch to use the phrase "We know parents..." rather than "We know Mums..."?
Would it not have been a good idea to include just one or two frames of a busy and demented Dad?
I know that some families do keep to the traditional roles of Mother & Father and that's fine...but in our household, Jon is just as important and just as busy as I am.
He goes out to work, and I work from home - we are equally responsible for the care of our child, and Jon takes a very active role in his life.
He gets up with him, he puts him to bed some nights, he feeds him at night time if he wakes, he feeds him his meals if he's not working, he changes his nappies, he washes his clothes....he does just as much for Tyne as I do, and I know that this is also the case for many other families.
And what about families were there is no mother? I'm sure there are plenty of single fathers or all-male families who buy SMA's products for their children who are simply not represented in this ad campaign.
Ok, ok I know its just an advert - I don't mean to get on my soapbox about it - I just think it's a little outdated.
Come on SMA, get with the times!!!!
