Years ago, I was in a marketing workshop. It focused on a case study: promoting a fancy new biscuit. The instructor explained that the target market had been time-poor solo mums, hankering for a daily treat, an affordable luxury. But what to call the biscuit? They resembled Melting Moments, so he called them simply ‘Moments’. Tagline: ‘Give yourself a moment.’ He framed the biscuit as an opportunity for miserable moms to press the whole world—including their absent partners and over-present kids—out of the frame, and attend to themselves for a change. And, as people are suggestible, perhaps it worked, perhaps it became the reward: a temporal interruption in tablet form, a sugar pill, permission to enjoy. I was in two minds about the presentation, which felt cynical. Our instructor seemed to deeply understand the mindset of solo mums, but in order to exploit it. Understanding can assist us in helping others, but also in helping ourselves. Perhaps the instructor would say: everyone wins. I’m not so sure.
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