Sales reps in NHS maternity wards are a marketing push too far for mothers | Life and style | The Observer
From earliest childhood, it's made clear to us that a major change in
life is best tackled by a trip to the shops. New school years are dealt
with by the purchase, in August, of pencil cases, lunchboxes and
too-long trousers. Starting a new job? Head down the high street for
something non-crease and professional-looking. Moving into your first
flat? Hello, Ikea.
As we get older, we can come to view the
shopping sprees that occur in advance of significant life events as an
integral element of the events themselves. There's something
reassuringly organised and adult about heading to the shops with a list
of essentials before embarking on a new project – a sort of real-world
expression of the Scouts' motto. If you're equipped, the thinking goes,
you are by definition prepared, and given that there's no life event for
which we feel more flailingly unprepared than the arrival of a first
baby, logic dictates that the best form of preparation is a
commensurately large shopping expedition.
All of which explains
why new parents are uniquely susceptible to the blandishments of
companies looking to part them from their money. You've never had a baby
before, after all – and babies, much more than first flats or new
schools, play on our emotions as well as our ignorance.
Parents can shrug off
most of the marketing pressure but Bounty's private sales reps have a
captive audience of bed-bound mothers. Photograph: Kelvin Murray/Getty
Images
