Mother's Day Marketing When Your Mom is Dead
This is a weird thing to write, but it feels important because I let you participate in our brand so much and share so much of the behind-the-scenes content. Also, I think it's good to remind people that there is a person behind the brand; a human with hopes, dreams, feelings, and fears. Sometimes we see an avatar that's a logo and we forget that there's a person with a heart behind it. The past few weeks have been an example of that, but that's another post for another day.
Mother's Day is coming up and I'm dreading it. Not the candle part of it, that part is fine. I love that part of it, actually. It's this: my mom died a few months ago and this is the first Mother's Day without her. As a living, breathing human that uses the internet, I am already getting bombarded with ads for Mother's Day gifts. Sparkly bracelets, floral bouquets, lockets, personalized gifts, and more parade in front of me on every platform and every time I see one of those ads it feels like being knocked over by a wave at the grocery store. Like, I know that waves exist, but I do not expect to be knocked over by one when sniffing the butt (or is it their belly button we're smelling?) of a honeydew to evaluate its ripeness.
Commercial holidays are tough for a lot of people for a myriad of reasons. Valentine's Day feels like an assault when you're single. Christmas has completely lost the reason for the season with the Black Friday stampedes and crippling debt that follows many into the new year. Memorial Day is incredibly dark if you think about it too long, but enjoy your camping trips and hot dogs because you haven't had a paid holiday off since February. You get the point. I would love it if there was a universal "off" button for any and all holidays that bring people any kind of discomfort. We sent billionaires to space, can someone start working on my small request?
Long story short, if Mother's Day is painful for you, you're not alone. Thankfully, the day will come and go unlike the grief many of us are walking around with every single day. In the meantime, I will be absolutely delighted to pack orders for your mom and read the gifts notes you'll send in a couple of weeks. I will cry. More than once. I'm a crier so probably more like 100 times between now and May 8th and maybe a few days after, too. I will be referring to "gifts for mom" and Mother's Day here and there. There will be Mother's Day wording in links for SEO and whatnot because business is business after all. I will try to mix up the messaging and let you draw your own conclusions with things like "these make a great gift" wink wink nudge nudge. And I hope that when your mom opens her gift that she loves what's inside, no matter what you give her. Hug her extra tight for me.