The message behind Baby Dove UK’s new parenting ad is “Trust Your Way”
While the intentions are good, it’s left many Mom’s fuming.
The commercial has received 150 complaints and counting to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) so far.
The tag line of the ad is “There’s no right or wrong way to be a mom.”
However, it includes a statistic which some woman feel delivers the exact opposite message: “75% say breastfeeding in public is fine, 25% say put them away. What’s your way?”
Many took to social media to share their outrage
Seriously? Women who choose not to feed their baby in public do so because it’s not the societal norm. You’re making it even harder for them
— Sarah Dempster (@sarahdempster) July 4, 2017
Your ad does nothing of the sort. It normalises the view that breastfeeding in public is something taboo. #boycottdove
— Shona Singer (@MrsSKSinger) July 4, 2017
It’s made me so angry! It took a lot for me to start feeding my baby out in public instead of hiding in the car and now this…! 🙁
— Nicola Startup (@NicolaDaffy) July 5, 2017
In response to the outcry, Baby Dove issued a statement this week that reads in part, “Our campaign supports mums who choose to breastfeed in public, as well as those who choose not to, regardless of what other people say or think.”
The ad seems to support the right of a woman to nurse, and the right of others to oppose it. Breastfeeding in public is entirely a mother’s own choice, isn’t it?
Whether or not anyone else thinks a Mom should “put them away” is not the point of the ad but probably not something worth promoting at all.
What do you think of this parenting campaign? Do you see any harm in it?