In anticipation of Mother’s Day last year, Publix supermarkets released a commercial that acknowledges the role of a mother both before and after her child is born.
The ad (below) features a young girl helping her mother, who is pregnant with another child, in the kitchen. The little girl asks, “Can the baby hear me?” to which the mother responds, “I think so!” (It’s true: according to the Mayo Clinic, babies begin to hear and respond to sound around week 18 of pregnancy.) When prompted by her mother to tell the baby a secret, the little girl embraces her pregnant belly and says, “You’re really going to love mom,” and the advertisement closes with Mother’s Day wishes from Publix.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwPInEIkVS0]
TV features a lot of advertisements targeted at moms: household products, family-friendly cars, and grocery stores like Publix. However, advertisements with pregnant women — and those that go out of their way to acknowledge the humanity and dignity of the other person living inside of them — are few and far between. Kudos to Publix, Huggies, and Tide for taking the road less traveled.