Mother disruptor; why brands should pay attention to breastfeeding’s marketing moment

A burst of creativity has shattered the silence that surrounds breastfeeding, highlighting the power of advertising's ability to smash stereotypes and make culture.

In amongst the realms of the invisible labour of motherhood there are few jobs as wordless, all-encompassing and under-appreciated as feeding a newborn baby. Yet a clutch of adverts are successfully smashing the stereotypes, silence, misplaced shame and the misunderstanding that surrounds breastfeeding, paving the way for a more progressive era of marketing to mothers.

The spots serve as a powerful reminder of the simple, yet radical strength in advertising just telling the truth about women’s lived experience.

The groundbreaking Spill the Milk campaign for Tommee Tippee, the feeding and accessories brand for babies and new parents, brings both joy and honesty to the unspoken. The ad, created by Manifest, features breastfeeding women, those who prefer to bottle-feed and a woman who, following a double mastectomy, formula feeds.

In a separate campaign, the beauty of the raw, unfiltered challenge and all-consuming journey of breastfeeding is brought to the screen with creative honesty by Frida Mom in its Streams of Lactation spot, created by Mekanism. The spots serve as a powerful reminder of the simple, yet radical strength in advertising just telling the truth about women’s lived experience.

Above: Frida Mom's spot is one of two recent campaigns which tackle the real world challenges involved with breastfeeding.

The power of truth

In the spirit of that truth I should point out I have a stake in this conversation or, perhaps more accurately, it holds a slice of my soul. I’ve felt the intensity of the pressure that new mothers face at such a vulnerable, precious, yet intensely fragile time in their lives. I’ve experienced the intense judgement and sharp contradictions. I’ve been urged not to breastfeed for too long, or told that I’ve not done so for long enough, and even encouraged to do so where fewer people can see. I’ve felt the weight of those competing expectations identified by Tommee Tippee’s research, revealing that 74% of mothers say that they felt society overlooked the challenges of breastfeeding. This work means something to me.

I’ve felt the intensity of the pressure that new mothers face. I’ve experienced the intense judgement and sharp contradictions.

Truth be told, I wanted to write about the absolute invisibility of the experience of breastfeeding in marketing seven years ago. In fact, I remember clearly an intense desire to place some kind of logo on the features I wrote during that time (on a breastfeeding cushion with a sleeping baby, pictured below) to highlight the fact that they were written while also feeding a baby. I was probably too busy explaining why that year was the year of mobile, or of the rise of agile marketing, or predicting the death of TV (both maternity leaves, because the industry moves so quickly, you know) for the idea to make it to the page.

Above: Kemp continued to work while also breastfeeding her child. 

Perhaps I was sleep-deprived, but that intense desire for those invisible experiences of motherhood to be both seen and valued remains. Yet, seven years later, the truth is that these groundbreaking adverts, which reflect the lived experience of motherhood, remain the exception. When you consider that glacial pace of change alongside the narrative of how fast-moving and dynamic the industry is, a toxic truth emerges. Because this narrative of a ‘fast-paced industry’ has been casually used to exclude mothers from the creative industries. Barely a feather was ruffled in 2015 when advertising legend Sir John Hegarty explained that the biggest problem for women advancing their careers is taking career breaks to have children, then struggling to rejoin an industry that has moved on.

This narrative of a ‘fast-paced industry’ has been casually used to exclude mothers from the creative industries.

When you consider this view through the lens of the ironed out, dead-eyed, straight-jacketed image of perfection which still pervades much marketing to mothers, we know the opposite to be true. It is, in fact, the industry that has catastrophically failed to move on. By failing mothers in the workplace, the creative industries risk failing to represent motherhood's complexities in its creative output. This work matters not just because it shows mothers as they are; but it reminds us all of just how far we still have to go as an industry.