While the world is trumpeting about women’s powers and abilities on International Women’s Day, Maltesers is reminding mums that it’s OK if parenting isn’t always great.
The AMV BBDO campaign supports research that shows 1 in 10 women will experience mental health issues during pregnancy or within the first year of giving birth, and that 7 in 10 women choose to hide or underplay the severity of their symptoms.
The two light-hearted, very honest films representing moments and emotions that new mums experience were developed in partnership with Comic Relief, from conversations with real mums and their accounts of motherhood. Maltesers has a multi-year partnership with Comic Relief and over the next three years will donate to charities supporting maternal mental health, such as The Happy Mums Foundation and Smile Group.
The TV and digital spots will be supported by a social media campaign of stickers, posts and Instagram Stories to encourage those suffering in silence to speak out and share their personal experiences to support others. Maltesers also plans to initiate more activity around Maternal Mental Health Month in May in the UK and throughout the next year.
Creative director, Polina Zabrodskaya, noted, “Our culture conditions people to have strong opinions on what is acceptable and not acceptable for women to feel while being a mother. The more you are pressured to act blissfully happy, the harder it becomes to reach out for support. We hope this campaign helps to normalise the experiences so many women go through.”
Credits:
Agency: AMV BBDO
Creative Director: Polina Zabrodskaya
Creative Team: Verity Fenner, Vanessa Robinson, Jez Tribe & Dave Westland
Production Company: Partizan
Director: Ally Pankiw
Media: MediaCom