For brands, is it Mother’s Yay or Mother’s Nay this weekend?
Senior Account Director @Antonia and Senior Account Exec @Ethan have the arguments for and against…
Mother’s Nay!
Every year around Mother’s Day, my LinkedIn feed fills up with brand posts celebrating mums. And while it’s clearly one of the biggest moments in the marketing calendar, I’m not convinced it’s always the best one for brands to show up in.
For starters, it’s incredibly crowded. Suddenly, every brand, from supermarkets to train operators, has something to say about Mother’s Day. The result is a wave of very similar messaging landing at exactly the same time in the same space. The result… boring coverage and a bored reader. However well-intentioned it is, brands will struggle to genuinely stand out when everyone is telling a version of the same story.
There’s also the question of authenticity. Not every brand has a natural role in conversations about motherhood or family life, yet many feel compelled to participate because it’s a “moment”. When the connection is stretched too far, it can start to feel a bit performative. Audiences are pretty good at spotting when a brand truly has something meaningful to say versus when it’s simply following the calendar and creating a story like any other awareness day.
And then there’s the commercial side of it. Over time, days like Mother’s Day have become heavily tied to promotions and sales, half price this, 25% off that, the list goes on. Pairing nice storytelling with discount codes can sometimes make the sentiment feel a little transactional.
Of course, celebrating mums is important. But from a marketing perspective, I often think the more interesting question is whether brands always need to join the loudest conversation, or whether sometimes it’s better to create their own.
Mother’s Yay
Awareness days like Mother’s Day can be an incredibly useful tool for PRs. Yes, they come round every year – but that predictability is exactly what makes them powerful. They act as strategic calendar anchors, helping teams map out editorial opportunities months in advance.
The news agenda is a machine that constantly needs feeding, and moments like Mother’s Day are lighter moments to hook your newsline on amid an uncertain, crowded and largely negative stream of headlines.
Multiple wars, rising bills, the orange baboon … *Ahem* sorry let me rephrase. Geopolitics, climate change, economic pressures – all these dreary stories need to be counter balanced by softer news moment, as editors still need variety and emotional balance across their daily news lists. Especially on a Sunday when there’s fewer natural news moments to keep the 24 hour news cycle fed.
The trap that PRs often fall into around these predictable days is issuing predictable stories around them.
Why is Mother’s Day celebrated? Because it’s about people. And I agree – too often brands treat it as a thinly disguised excuse to push product. But that doesn’t mean they can’t still show up if they find an authentic way in that is relevant to them.
The better approach is to look for the human stories behind the moment: real experiences, useful insights, new data or expert perspectives that actually say something about modern motherhood.
For a best-in-class example of how to use awareness and calendar days well, look at organic veg box company Riverford’s recent commentary on International Women’s Day from the brand’s founder, Guy Singh Watson. What relevance does an “ageing male farmer” have in commenting on IWD? At first glance none, but round of applause for how he made his thoughts on the awareness day authentic, real and relevant to his brand. You can read it here.
Awareness days like Mother’s Day shouldn’t be treated as gimmicks. Used well, they’re editorial shortcuts to relevance – but only if PRs move beyond the obvious and find the real human story behind it.
