Tesco Ireland’s new billboard ads are currently all over Dublin.
Mussolini would definitely approve of them.
As part of the campaign they are trying to get this hashtag to trend on Twitter, by tagging all their recipes and offers with it.
#FamilyMakesUsBetter
You might think that they would include some “alternative families” and try to acknowledge singletons and those without any family in some way (in the last census, 44% of people aged 30-39 identified as single, and in a 2014 study Irish women had the third-highest rate of childlessness in the developed world).
But Tesco have decided to make parents and children the main focus of the campaign.
According to their slushy TV advert, a ‘family’ starts with:
…a belly that miraculously grew…
It’s stretch marks and growing pains, pencilled lines up door frames…
If #FamilyMakesUsBetter, does that mean #NoFamilyMakesUsWorse?
The advert concludes:
Just look at how much more we live life when life is filled with family
Their advert includes a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it clip of Dublin Pride, in which two girls embrace ambiguously and fairly chastely.
Literally lip service.
It’s the only (very oblique) nod to “alternative families” that I can see in the campaign. Apart from that it’s as traditional as they come.
Must try harder, Tesco Ireland.
Well, thanks there Tesco for cutting a huge swathe of non-parental, non family members out of your advertising. Since when did a supermarket get to dictate what is classed as a family? I’m a family of 2 humans and a small (currently stinky, but the groomer arrives armed to beautify her tonight!) dog.
Pogue Mahone, Tesco…
By the way, I’m reading at work and when I seen the shamrock with ‘feck off’ I spat my cup of tea everywhere with laughter… my sentiments exactly!
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Ha I wanted to entitle the post “F*ck Off Tesco” but thought it was a bit offensive so I was delighted when I found that shamrock… Yeah it’s fairly awful: smacks of a fertility campaign to me…
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Grr. What a load of bollocks. We always called ourselves a family when we were a couple with a dog, anyway.
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There is so much dysfunctional family life and problematic isolation here in Ireland, it really is bollocks
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Agree! Although I don’t live in Ireland I have a large family all over the country and yes… it sucks!!
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Wow my stomach just turned, not ok, just not ok!
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I have just emailed the ASA about this and also Tesco – nothing will come of that but it’s made my blood boil.
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Oh wow good on you! It’s a horribly excluding campaign
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WTF! That truly gets my back up. I guess their marketing dept didn’t get the memo that families come in all shapes and sizes and do not need to consist of parents and child – I always think of my husband and I as a family. I boycott Tescos most of the time anyway – I used to work for them as a teenager. I wonder if they’ll spread this crap to England?
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Honestly I’m not sure it’d stand up in England – Ireland can be such a strangely conservative place, despite recent developments like same-sex marriage
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Well, good to know that I am not as good of a person as someone with children – because I didn’t already see that pretty much every where (or, that’s what it feels like sometimes).
I swear, some times I wonder how we’re in 2017 when ads like this come out, propelling us back into the 50s.
Feck off is right! LOL.
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It’s VERY retrograde
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What a load of bollocks. I already hate Tesco and now I hate them a little bit more!
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Down with Tesco!
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As usual, in life and in nonParenthood (I just made up a word), I’m the odd one out on this one. At this point in my life, seeing something like that doesn’t bother me. On the OTHER hand, if I’d have seen this video years ago when I was trying to conceive, I likely would’ve broken down in sobs. I guess it’s a matter of where each of us are on our journeys in life and how confident we feel about who we are.
Not being from Ireland, I’m not sure what Tesco is, but if it’s groceries (according to a search), it’s obvious that they are only targeting one market. In that case, it’s their loss.
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Hi Lori, I’m kind of the same – not much bothers me these days, but Tesco are a huge retailer here & in UK, probably the biggest & most powerful supermarket chain. They have billboards all over the capital… I ignore a lot these days but “makes you better” did shock me…. I agree though, their loss. They never have what I’m looking for anyway (Tahini is not an exotic item, Tesco, you idiots).
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God those signs are repulsive!!!
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I don’t have a response for this. Unless you count using the f word as every single word of a sentence.
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They use these ads because they are so short-sighted, they think it will be favoured by so many people, but they don’t even seem to realise that there will be others who will feel ostracised and ignored and hurt by them, and will turn away from their brand. Anyway, in my observation, family doesn’t necessarily make anyone better. It makes people selfish, protective, insular, and xenophobic, defensive, aggressive, ignorant and intolerant, abused, weak, emotionally damaged and stereotyped. I could go on!
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Hear, hear! So many examples of shitty families come to mind.
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I am gobsmacked. How can Tescos be so short sighted?!? What absolute arseholes.
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Whoa, what a dumb campaign. What a narrow slogan, especially since their pictures do not show a variety of families. I guess I’m in a different place now too. This doesn’t upset me or sting or even make me mad or sad for what I don’t have. I just think, wow, what a really dumb company. And, if possible, I wouldn’t want to do business with them.
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I agree Phoenix, this doesn’t mortally wound me like it might have done once over, but it does make my jaw drop at how regressive and dim it is
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What a narrow-minded campaign. It’s so exclusive. What about all the people who don’t get to parent, for whatever reason?
I can’t help it but feel sorry for Tesco. This campaign will most certainly backfire at them. It might have been suitable 60 years ago, but not today.
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I hope it does backfire
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UGH. I hope, hope, hope that nobody on this side of the Atlantic picks up on that particular slogan!!
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Sorry, I am feeling passionate today….Of course, if you don’t have a family what kind of monster are you! Also, it must be this kind of family, it must meet my family standards, my rules or it doesn’t count as making you a better person. ~ OMG! Get over yourselves, you can’t tell me how to be a better person, because you don’t know how I can be a better person. Also, some people who after they have kids, become horrible abusive parents. Not better people. Please, you become a better person, because you want to be a better person.
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Exactly
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Oh boy is this campaign terrible. I feel like doing my own campaign – #struggleandlossmakesyoubetter. I’d replace “a belly that miraculously grew” with “a belly that inevitably bruised” and accompany it with a picture of my bruised non pregnant belly and the video of me administering my drug protocol 4th IVF (I’m of course in possession of both). But I digress.
Wherever we are in our healing processes, however this ad campaign may strike me on any given day, this is not the entire point. It is plain wrong to be so exclusionary. The way our reality is reflected back to us by the media, or not, does have a legitimate impact (Brenee Brown’s work has delved into this). In this age of almost unprecedented childlessness, pronatalism is sadly alive and well. I sincerely hope Tesco hears loud, clear and excessively from Ireland’s childless women.
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There will be a deafening silence from Ireland’s childless women, I can guarantee it. They don’t tend to tweet or comment much on social media about these things… I think there’s stigma here, and with such a small population, no one likes drawing attention. (also who I am to talk – I’m anonymous!)….. It’s frustrating how women don’t talk about childlessness here, though.
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Thanks for this perspective. By the way, the statistics you site are convincing, and your shamrock is absolutely fabulous:-). I find our tribe to be quite silent here in the US too, though I get that silence has a spectrum. So many embedded beliefs and experiences that create this, I suspect. It is frustrating that as of now our voice, relative to our numbers, is miniscule.
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Why wouldn’t “family” include, say, siblings? Grandparents? I don’t get it. My family didn’t start with a big ‘ole belly. It started with paperwork and an FBI background check!
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Yes, it’s awful that the big pregnant belly is the image that launches the whole thing ….
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