So there’s this gender-coded internet ad meme-thing that I’m seeing everywhere, and I just don’t get it.
The ads, which I find in Gmail, in Facebook, and in just about every other ad-bar that pops up on the right side of my screen, run something like this:
Don’t get Botox! A Mom of Three Discovered How To Fight Wrinkles Naturally!
Thinking about Expensive Teeth Whitening? A Stay-at-Home Mom Learned that These Two Household Products Work Just As Well!
I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s been flooded with these lately. And I don’t click on ads anyway, so I can’t report what sort of snake-oil is being sold here. But I’m interested in why this “mom” thing is the hook.
Is this about the current vogue for “natural” or “folk” remedies, as opposed to “scientific” ones? That means that folk is gendered female, and science is male. (Nothing new there.) Is it that women, and specifically mothers, have secret medicinal knowledge, because they are caregivers? That goes along with the folk aspect, I guess. “Wise women” or something… Or is it that I’m a woman of child-bearing age, and so I’ll want to give my teeth-whitening business (puh. leeze.) to a woman who has children? Some sort of you-go-girl-ism?
Of course, the claim that SAHMs are coming up with these “revolutionary” beauty treatments–and of course, they’re beauty treatments, not software apps or cures for cancer–is just weird to me. It’s not that women who stay home to raise their young children couldn’t possibly invent something*, of course, but stay-at-home-motherhood is being used as a kind of code here, and I’m not exactly sure how to read it. I’m pretty certain, though, that whatever it is, it really isn’t about valuing women or mothers.
Have any of you seen these ads? Have you clicked through? What do you make of them?
*See Anne L. Macdonald’s book Feminine Ingenuity: Women and Invention in America, for a really good read on this subject.
If a stay at home mom invented it than it’s safe and unthreatening and trustworthy! If a woman in a lab with a PhD invented it’s probably toxic and will make your balls shrink.
I get the same ads all the time. I am chalking it up to the notion that as soon as a woman becomes a mom, her spit has the same composition as Formula 409. Jeff Foxworthy told me that, so it must be true.
I actually read the ads differently, that ‘we have this natural tooth-whitening product’, and ‘a mother just like you bought some and realised it works’. Sort of like “Julie, 37 from Kent, says “It really worked!”.
…and, after a Google, it seems it’s a combination the two – the SAHM heard about these two products, tried them together, and discovered the combination is a MIRACLE. The website features a embarrasingly-obviously-faked ‘before and after’ comparision and a bunch of “”readers comments”". Two commenters say that the Mum’s story is ‘inspiring’… uh, yuh, I’m inspired to get stressed about my wrinkly face.
Anyways back to your point – yes, I think the whole thing is designed to make you think “wow, I’m a wrinkly white blonde blue-eyed mother just like her, obviously this will work on my face too, time to get this free trial which I will blatantly forget to cancel and end up getting charged $80 for”.
LOL re the 409 spit!
I haven’t looked at any of the ads either, but assumed they were going for the folk remedy appeal but putting the mom spin on it for all those chemical phobic people out there.
All the ones I see are about belly fat for some reason. Not that I’d trust any of the SAHMs I know for any type of health advice. Reminds me of an interwebz friend’s remark after I mentioned an IRL friend is homeschooling her kids: “Oh, do they go in for home doctoring, too?” Whatever happened to trusting experts on things? I thought that was cool again ever since Obama proved more electable than Sarah Palin.
Also, how come it’s never “WORKING MOM OF 2 DOGS CURES BAD HAIR DAYS?” Can’t we working pet parents get a break?
I think it’s similar to how commercials on day time t.v. are often aimed at stay at home moms. It’s been publicized a lot lately how SAHMs are increasingly turning to the internet for information, entertainment, and community (via blogs, etc.) Accordingly, ads trying to tap into this growing demographic by playing the SAHM card are becoming more common.
I think you’re all right on target here – “a mom like me must be trustworthy!” However, because you asked the question, I realized that I’ve also been assuming that the SAHM hook also indicates that it’s cheap. And in the vein of being thrifty and ingenious that’s so popular now, the idea that a SAHM invents something also indicates that it’s a “good value” economically. I.e., an industry didn’t spend thousands of dollars to develop (and test!) it, so it’s more affordable. (Personally, I like products I use regularly to be thoroughly tested, thank you – I’ll pay extra for R&D – but it’s also got a bad name these days.) SAHM’s are ingenious and save money, right? So the products they “invent” should also be cheap/cost-effective. Again, I have no basis for this, it was just an impression I got from all these ads. (And thank you for questioning this trend, PhDork!)
I’m quite tired, so I’ll just say that I think the SAHM label is an emotional catch-all word. There’s something nostalgic and innocent about a person being a SAHM, which works in the spammers’/advertisers’ favors.
Also, Adblock is the stuff that dreams are made of. Anyone with Firefox should get the add-on ASAP. I haven’t seen one of those “One rule: Obey” ads in weeks.
I’m quite tired, so I’ll just say that I think the SAHM label is an emotional catch-all word. There’s something nostalgic and innocent about a person being a SAHM, which works in the spammers’/advertisers’ favors.
Also, Adblock is the stuff that dreams are made of. Anyone with Firefox should get the add-on ASAP. I haven’t seen one of those “One rule: Obey” ads in weeks.
Sorry… forgot to say great post – can’t wait to read your next one!
I think there’s an aspect of “moms are frugal and find things that really work, dammit” to the whole thing as well- there’s a sort of recession-theme to advertising at the moment, and there’s a hook there for “what if we used people trying to save money JUST LIKE THE CONSUMERS to sell them useless shit? Well who tries to save money the most? A LOVING MOTHER OF THREE, CLEARLY.”
I just assumed I was seeing these ads because I talk about babies in Gmail and that FB had somehow divined that I have one. I’m going to have to ask my husband if he sees them too, or if it’s just the ladies that are presumed to want products invented by someone whose only credential is that she has successfully reproduced or adopted.
It reminds me of Airborn, that anti-cold stuff that touts “Invented by a teacher!” Um, no thanks. I prefer my cold remedies to be invented by a scientist – and frankly, I know that those don’t even work!
I’ve had this discussion with a like-minded friend before, and it’s frightening what anti-expert backlash there is among mothers. I think there is a general distrust of doctors and big pharma – see that stupid book “The Cures THEY Don’t Want You to Know About” – but it seems even more prevalent among young mothers.
A big part of that, IMO, is the anti-vaccination people, and it’s spread to other areas. Intution is great, but I’ve seen and heard a lot of moms say “I know my kid” when they don’t know basic facts about babies. Like, you don’t switch a three month old from formula to cow’s milk.
Um, I digressed. But I think it has something to do with the anti-expert thing, targeting women who would conceivably want stuff supported by someone like them, and the general inanity of Gmail/FB ads.
I thought that it was an appeal to SAHMs, sort of a sisterhood thing. Most of the SAHMs I know are online a fair amount. I figured this is some kind of “it was invented by someone just like you!” hook, appealing to familiarity as much as frugality or folksiness.
I was getting ads like that on facebook. Then I took my gender off my facebook profile and it blew facebook’s little world. My friends wouldn’t be able to identify me, they’d be confused, oh no! The ads stopped.
But, other women friends have told me that they get ads about engagements, wedding planning, diet, HPV, etc.
So glad I don’t have to deal with that. I really hate facebook.
late to the story but they are ALL OVER msn/mainstream media sites and it is ANNOYING.