M&A: Celebrating Not Just Mothers

Mother’s Day campaigns typically focus on ‘mothers’, but Pillsbury has taken a new approach to celebrating the day with its new ‘Also My Mom’ campaign. This Mother’s Day, the brand wants people to take note of the mother figures — aunts, grandmothers, neighbours or even friends’ mothers— in their life who have always been there. In its latest campaign, Pillsbury stops to celebrate the women ‘who are just like our moms’.

Conceptualised by Leo Burnett, the ad film shows a number of people talking about a person they are really close to. All along, it appears that they are talking about their mothers, until the end, when it turns out that they were describing their relationship with their aunts, grandmothers and sisters.

Commenting on the marketing strategy, Salil Murthy, marketing director of General Mills India, says, “Pillsbury has been helping mothers around the world delight their families with snacks and meals they love. This Mother’s Day, we wanted to pay tribute to moms and the special bond they have with their children. But as we talked to our consumers, we realised that we need to think of this relationship in a much more expansive way. You know you really have a special bond with someone when you can tell them anything. People do that with their moms and they also do that with a few special others who they look up to, just like their mom, an elder sister or an aunt or the neighbour next door, who always has time to listen. So this Mother’s Day, we decided to celebrate the special bond that people have with their moms and all the people they hold just as close to them, who are just like their moms.”

Pillsbury, which bases its brand proposition on celebrating women through food, takes its vision of creating happy moms further with this campaign as it focuses on the ‘other mother-child-like relationships’.

Raj Deepak Das, chief creative officer of Leo Burnett, adds: “As a brand, Pillsbury believes in creating a strong bond between mothers and children. This Mother’s Day, our idea was to look deeper and sweeten this bond further. We recognised that there are some special people in our life who we open up to, share moments of joys and sadness. They never give up on us, instead they help us grow and become the people we are. They are like our moms and they come to our life as aunts, sisters, grandmothers, etc. With #AlsoMyMom, we are encouraging consumers to embrace all mothers in our life and wish them happy mother’s day.”