In the latest chapter of our 'Modern Parenting' series, VCCP's Creative Director, Caroline Rawlings, speaks on the depiction of parents on social media, how the industry has progressed and where there's still room for growth. Plus we are shown examples of brand work pushing culture forward.
How has the depiction of parenthood in advertising evolved?
It’s funny, I was talking about this the other day.
When I’d just had my first daughter and was overtired with shit under my fingernails and leaky tits, I actively sought out what I considered to be aspirational moms on social media. Women who mostly lived in Byron Bay, showed me beautiful lies with their linen clad babes, perfect abodes and suntanned feet. I drank that content up like it was one of their organic superfood smoothies. I didn’t want to look at women living my reality. I wanted to believe that I could keep up the aesthetically pleasing and together life I’d lived before I had kids.
I think this was a reflection on the world at the time. Instagram was still about perfect squares and pretending you had everything together. The same with advertising. Even the moms I knew in the industry didn’t really wear their motherhood on their sleeves and a three or even four day working week was not a thing.
But the older my daughter got, the more I welcomed a kinship with the parents I saw on screens. Something changed. I remember the SMA ‘You’re Doing Great’ ad coming out and it felt so new. Good new. Real Moms on the telly, like me. It’s an interesting marker because that ad now, just wouldn’t fly. Not just because of the embarrassing lack of diversity, but because there’s not a single Dad in that ad feeding his baby.
How are agencies and brands adapting ad comms to inclusivity around parenting?
We’re doing ok. I’ve of course noticed it on social media; my perfect little squares, previously filled with beautiful lies, have been outnumbered by parents, of all sorts, being honest, leaky tits and all. And as an industry we’re slowly working our way through an embarrassingly long list of all the many different realities of parenthood that need to be represented and normalized.
A few things have caught my attention of late:
Of course, this year's John Lewis Christmas ad, The Beginner. That was due, wasn’t it? What a beautiful leap forward.
Mothercare’s #bodyproudmums
Free the feed for Elvie.
The Lost Daughter was the most breath-taking slap in the face of the way Moms are portrayed. The paternal figure in The Last of Us. And I can’t not mention Bluey, can I? Bandit Heeler, leading his own little revolution. Is it ok to have a crush on a cartoon dog?
In what ways does your role as a parent inform your work?
The main thing it does is make me more efficient than I ever thought I was capable of. Every minute spent not getting stuff done at work is a minute I could be spending with my kids. There isn’t a better motivator for a girl with a terrible relationship with deadlines and punctuality than that! Of course, I also have that lovely stash of insights, anecdotes, and the ability to cry extremely easily that raising children gives you.
What are some areas regarding parenthood that you feel could use more visibility in advertising?
I don’t know if this is a job for advertising or the NHS, but I do feel like very new dads are in a strange era at the moment. They are invited into the labour ward and expected to be involved in every moment of the birth and beyond, however, the support isn’t there for their mental health. Moms are looked after, checked up on, and talked to. But Dads are just expected to cope. And childcare; We’re not talking about that much are we? The complicated and finely tuned web of clubs and carers that allow parents to work.
Legal guardians can play a significant role in the lives of children who are no longer with their birth parents. How can brands balance the importance placed on these other parental figures in their messaging?
John Lewis have made a start. Let’s keep going. Without getting into purpose lead work, it’s about representation and normalization, isn’t it? As ever though, it’s something we need to do conscientiously and well.
I think children's publishing is actually ahead of us and can teach us a lot. I’m seeing so many amazing books for kids that normalize and celebrate all the different forms that a family can take. Julian is a Mermaid is a properly lovely book with one of the most aspirational parental figures I know. It’s about a young boy who wants to dress as a mermaid and his very accepting (and stylish to boot) Grandma. I’d follow her on Instagram.