Welcome to a new feature of Maternal Journal. Every month we'll highlight one company whose marketing misses the mark of connecting with moms (according to our What's Your Blanket? litmus test).

So, the first-ever Wet Blanket Award goes to... (drumroll, please)

T-Mobile.



The ad copy reads as follows:

I Take My Family Everywhere I Run.

I hear from them at least once a mile. Luckily T-Mobile proved my signal strength, street by street, before I signed up. Which is important, if I get a crisis call about a missing binkie. When it comes to my coverage, T-Mobile works great.

This ad is a perfect example of a message that got 90% of it right, but ruined the whole thing with one oversight. I can see the creative brief in my mind, stating correctly that moms need to feel reachable by their families, especially when they are going to attempt something as luxuriously "selfish" as exercising. Yet needing to feel reachable, and being tethered to the family's every last need, are two separate things.

"I hear from them at least once a mile" opens the ad copy. You mean to tell me that the caretaker for these children cannot operate without mom's help for seven to ten minutes at a stretch? Dads everywhere should be insulted by this ad (I'm sure the super-capable guys at DadLabs would be stewing about it right now if they weren't too busy single-handedly running the PTA, driving the carpool, and coaching soccer).

She wants to take her family everywhere she runs: YES. But she does not want to hear from them unless there is a real emergency. Do not call these pesky interruptions "crisis calls." This is her coveted "me" time. T-Mobile has taken what could be a huge support for her in this way -- good coverage so she can forget about her family -- and ruined it by suggesting that it will turn her into Mom 911, 24/7, forced into thinking of them every 20 city blocks.

That's it for today. And lest you think Maternal Instinct only scans for the negative, we will also highlight success via the Warm Blanket Award (stay tuned: Award #1 is coming next week).

Labels: DadLabs, mom marketing award, T-Mobile

Please leave your thoughts and opinions in the comments section below, even if -- no, especially if -- you don't agree with what I've written.