**Author anonymous- Marketing /  PR professional, and friend. Unable for work reasons to be able to claim this. I’m not going to steal credit, but give this person’s thoughts a stage on which to be heard. **

 First impression:

My whole family saw this ad Thursday and DIED laughing! So funny and over the top. My teenage girls left the room with a smile on their face, and really happy we are not weirdos like the mom in the ad.

Wait a Minute….

As I thought about it later, I took a step back and looked at the ad from a different perspective. I shared many of the same feelings of this blogger. That poor kid. She is just trying to fit in and her mom made her a laughing stock of the entire neighborhood. Being a teenager is hard enough without your parents making it worse. “ugh, my parents. They just don’t understand what it’s like.” Well, that mom doesn’t for sure.

That Wasn’t Very Nice….

Instead of talking to her she took the vindictive approach. Something very private and embarrassing was displayed for everyone in that girl’s circle and she will NEVER live it down. And the real “ladies days” hasn’t even happened yet. A simple conversation would have strengthened the relationship between mother and daughter. This could have been a defining moment when the mother proved that she DOES understand what the daughter is going through, and that there will be more things that she has to deal with in high school. Mom is there for you to guide you through it and give you a solid foundation. But no, mom blew it. The blogger nailed it.

Oh but Wait….

THEN I took another step back. Whoa, this is an ad.

It’s fiction.

IT DIDN’T HAPPEN.

It is supposed to you get your attention. Mission accomplished.

It’s gone viral and the brand name, HelloFlo, is still in the center of it. How many company names get lost when their videos get that many clicks? Plenty. Hey have you seen that new ad from HelloFlo? Yep.

No High horse…

I’m not going to get offended and ride a high horse for some fictional teenager.
Everything in the video was done for laughs. The mom’s reaction to the teens
lying is over the top, the decorations are over the top, the dad jumping out of
the cake in a red unitard is over the top. Marshmallows– over the top. The
whole thing is over the top. That’s why it’s funny; and memorable.

It may even help start some real… healthy… conversations about that first
period. Wasn’t that the point?