Spiked: Time to go
«Werbewoche» editor Anne-Friederike Heinrich is taking maternity "leave.".
Being pregnant would be easier if it weren't for the stares of my fellow human beings. They furtively roam over my rounding belly, fixate directly on the ball or, as my "condition" increases, circle the object of their gaze with rolling eyes. The looks say everything from "oh how beautiful" to "another one like that" to "how can you!" - This is the preferred look of the grizzled old people whose pensions our little one will later have to pay. The expectant mommy is well advised not to look when someone is looking. And who thinks about the little bliss that is growing in her belly and lively fights against all those stupid gawkers. But at some point, even the coolest, happiest mother-to-be has had enough. I was recently "knocked off my peg" by the adjacent advertisement. I am happy about my growing curves, as they show that my little lodger is thriving the way I want it to. How frustrating to realize that everyone else only sees me as a plump melon with two fat nectarines on top. Hey, I'm pregnant - not a fruit basket!
Advertising misfire
Put yourself, just for a moment, in the body of a brutally fit pregnant woman: She feels as immobile as an elephant, waddles like a duck, at best has a back that only 23 hours out of 24 feels like it's going to break through, and her legs and other protruding things on her body are threatening to burst. Mind you, "brutally fit". There are a lot of pregnant women who are miserable as hell. For all of them, this health promotion campaign is totally wrong and discriminatory. And I bet my last pregnancy shirt that those pregnant women will definitely not touch any more melons or nectarines after seeing this image. Advertising objective achieved?
Even I, as a hardened self-ironist, find this advertising masterpiece so stupid that it's almost good again. Ha ha ha! Once again, a particularly highly creative male hasn't understood who his target group is. And the gentlemen at the health promotion agency who waved this fruit salad through must have had a lot of fun. Great, guys. A little tip: "Pay attention to your target group during your advertising." But I get the message: I'm off then! You can send me some fruit to the hospital - but no melons, please. Because this season is now over.
