A Marketer's take on Mother's Day

It was mother's day yesterday and the heavy traffic, long queues in restaurants and flowers left and right made me stop and think. Mother's Day is not going to go away anytime soon. It's the norm. People expect you to celebrate, to respect it and you're a fool not to.

In fact, people don't know why we have such a day but the pressure is so strong that you might lose a mother if you didn't do anything (even a text message) yesterday. Are you an ungrateful child/husband not to honor your mother on such an occasion?

I have a suggestion, go for compliance.

Don't do anything special on mother's day. Buy simple flowers if you feel like it (prices are ridiculous), eat somewhere not fancy (how can you enjoy dining in a place with lots of people, lots of distractions), or better yet send her a text message (compose. don't forward).

BUT DO SPECIAL THINGS ANY OTHER DAY. Surprise her. Make your mom feel truly special, that you really mean it and not because of social pressures. Use the quieter times to converse. Get really special flowers (off peak prices) and allow her to show them off by being the ONLY ONE with flowers that day. Buy her her favorite drink for no special reason.

The paradox is that your text message telling your mom you love her means 100x more special, more authentic on any day except mother's day.