While consumer brands are no stranger to showcasing diverse family archetypes and have made great progress in recent years in terms of representation, there is still work to be done. Jason Gantner, Marketing Operations Director at Nelson Schmidt Inc., weighs in on the portrayal of modern parenting through the lens of Considered Purchase Marketing.
How has the depiction of parenthood in advertising evolved?
Every generation shows a unique depiction of parenting. The 50’s generally had the mother figure at home in the kitchen while the father figure was either at work or relaxing in the den. The 70’s and 80’s started to move the mother out of the kitchen and into the workplace, making her a do-it-all figure. Today the family is much broader, with mothers and fathers taking on different roles, undefined by gender. The families are mixed, both in sexual orientation and race, letting people see all the possibilities of what a family can be.
How are agencies and brands adapting ad comms to inclusivity around parenting?
All the work we do at Nelson Schmidt Inc. falls into the category of Considered Purchase Marketing, which has a long, complex buyer journey with significant emotional or financial risk and reward upon purchase. In our marketing, the depiction of family is generally linked to either the health, safety or well-being of the family unit as a whole.
Take, for example, the work we did for the State of Wisconsin. Prior to the pandemic, we ran a talent attraction campaign to encourage people and families to move to Wisconsin as a place to live, work and play. In these ads it was important to show parents of all types, engaged with their children in an environment that showed how they could successfully raise a family. Once the pandemic hit, the message changed from talent attraction to internal health and safety. We needed to show parents how to stay safe by giving them tools and information. In both cases, it was important to show the role of parents and how Wisconsin was going to provide for their health and well-being.
Talent attraction and pandemic response marketing both required a wide net to be cast. We weren’t trying to target just one type of person. We needed to get the message out to everyone. When the campaign focus changed to pandemic response, the message needed to be broad and inclusive enough to get to everyone. As an agency we’ve said that we’ll never do any other advertising that is more important than what we did for pandemic response, and we’re proud of the fact that we were successful in communicating to everyone.
In what ways does your role as a parent inform your work?
A parent’s DNA is infused with the need to protect and defend their children. Parents also have an inherent trait that wants to see their kids be good, productive members of society. These two things sometimes work in tandem; other times they fight each other. But it’s this fight for our children along with the pride of seeing them succeed that informs how agencies market products and services to other parent groups.
It goes without saying that the messages we develop for our clients will also come from a place of caregiving, nurturing and development. We watch these campaigns grow from their infancy as the germ of an idea into a fully baked and produced concept. We can’t help but feel pride in how these campaigns do, and we do everything in our power to help them succeed.
What are some areas regarding parenthood that you feel could use more visibility in advertising?
The most important job in the world is being a mom. We celebrate it every May, but frankly, it should be celebrated every day.
The other side of that is the father. Whole campaigns are dedicated to reminding fathers of their duties, which on its surface seems sad. However, it might be beneficial for consumer goods and services to focus less on “dad-as-comedic-relief” and more on the importance of fathers as role models and caregivers. Yes, dad will try (and fail) to fix the leaky faucet, but if the message is more about how dad is helping the family and less about their shortcomings, society may see a greater importance in their role in the family.
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?
Consumer brands have led the charge in embracing all family types in their advertising. Five years ago, brands were considered “brave” or “groundbreaking” when they showed a racially mixed or same-sex couple. Now, if you watch 30 minutes of broadcast television, the viewer will see nearly every type of family represented.
Under-represented in today’s advertising is the multi-generational home. Many cultures live in homes that include grandparents and extended family members (aunts/uncles or close friends). This means that the role of the parent is spread widely between many caregivers. Messaging doesn’t always depict these types of family units even though they are a large part of society, especially in urban settings. While it’s difficult to exclusively target these family members, they are essential to the upbringing of the children in these homes. Depicting these family structures more frequently in advertising would make these caregivers feel more included.