P&G, the nation’s largest advertiser, is sponsoring something new: Your mom.
For the past several months, they’ve been branding themselves “P&G: Proud Sponsor of Moms.” And yesterday the company announced they’re now sponsoring 100 mother-child reunions around the country.
The marketing mecca said this “Reunion” campaign is an extension of its “Proud Sponsor of Moms” campaign, which began during the Winter Olympics. During this campaign, P&G paid the expenses of 250 mothers to travel to Vancouver so they could watch their kids compete.
And they didn’t just sign over a check to gain the glory. P&G created an entire campus in Vancouver where the athletes’ moms could stay, be pampered and hang out with their Winter Olympian kids.
Not too shabby.
The athletes and their moms expressed such gratitude (and P&G said in their presentation yesterday that it also made their stock go up) that they decided to bring the reunion experience to “real people.”
To launch this new Reunion campaign, P&G flew in the people who got it all started: Winter Olympic medalists and their moms. Julie Chu (hockey), Seth Wescott (snowboard cross), J.R. Celski (speed skating) and Paralympian Caitie Sarubbi (giant slalom, super combined skiing).
I got to meet some of them in person (check out the video below) Oh, and HANDSOME-HUNK-ALERT about 6min into the video (and in the pic to the left). Seth Wescott couldn’t have been cuter. He’s such a momma’s boy. And is mom was adorable too… the perfect son and mom to give a reunion to. Seth said he always wins the gold when his mom is around (no pressure P&G to keep this up, wink wink)!
I also talked with Caitie Sarubbi, a Paralympian and her mom Kathryn. Caitie was absolutely awe-inspiring. Not only is she a visually-impaired 20-year-old competing – and winning medals – on the USA Paralympic alpine team, she’s also a Harvard student. Caitie suffers from an extremely rare disease and was born without eyelids, which led to her having over 56 surgeries and left her visually impaired. She’s now studying to be a surgeon because surgeons have done so much for her throughout her life.
They were pretty amazing athletes, with incredible stories. I loved meeting the moms who you could tell were just beaming with pride. Moms are these Olympians’ unsung heroes. You know it would have broken their hearts to not be there when their kid achieved one of the highest honors an athlete can achieve in their lifetime.
And being a daughter with a mom who lives out of state and I don’t get to see much of, I can really appreciate how P&G wants to bring together moms and their kids for special occasions like this. Distance, and tight budgets, cause you to miss the little (and sometimes unfortunately big things) in life.
As an example, next time my mom will be in town and we’ll be celebrating Father’s Day, my niece’s baptism, my birthday (June 10) and my brother’s birthday (June 7) all at once. But you do what you have to do. And thanks to this campaign, getting together will be a little easier for 100 people and their moms.
You can participate in this “Reunion” campaign by nominating yourself at www.thankyoumom.com. You might be one of the 100 people selected to get $1,000 to help pay for a reunion with your mom for a milestone event like a birth, wedding or graduation.
All you have to do is write a 100-word essay on why you’d like to be reunited with your mom. You can also can vote for the submissions you want to win. P&G will select 15 winners every month from now until Thanksgiving.
Happy Mother’s Day!
[HTML1]