As profitable as Mother’s Day is for some food and retail businesses, it can also be a painful time of year for a host of reasons ranging from grief over a lost relative to fertility struggles.

In an effort to balance these two facts, some brands are offering customers the choice to opt out of Mother’s Day — and Father’s Day — email advertising.

Companies familiar to many Canadians, such as Momofuku Goods, Kotn, Reformation, Fable Home and Etsy, are among those that have jumped on the trend in recent years.

“With Mother’s Day approaching, we understand that this can be a sensitive time. At Fable, we want to make sure that our emails bring you joy and comfort, nothing less,” reads a recent communication from dinnerware brand Fable Home.

“If you’d like to opt out of Mother’s Day emails from us, please click here … we just want to give you the option to skip the next few because we’re human too.”

Depending on how you look at it, University of Toronto communication and culture lecturer Daniel Tsai says it’s a show of cynical corporate marketing, an example of companies trying to treat consumers with empathy or something in between.

“From a marketing perspective, you want to be mindful of the interests and sensitivities of your audience or your customers, and a lot of people don’t come from stable families or have great relationships with their mothers and fathers,” Tsai told CTVNews.ca in a phone interview on Tuesday. “So a day like Mother’s Day or Father’s Day might be very triggering for some.”

On the other hand, Tsai said, the trend also points to the way some brands have mastered social sensitivity in the age of cancel culture.

“With social media, we’re much more politically correct and socially sensitive, and some may say this is part of a woke-type cultural phenomenon,” he said.

‘It is a trigger’

In one of the earlier examples of the trend, British online flower company Bloom & Wild earned a nod in the U.K. Parliament when it made the option available in 2019.

“It has given customers the opportunity to opt out of Mother’s Day emails as it recognizes that it can be a very sensitive time for some,” MP Matt Warman said. “If other companies were to follow suit, the dread — and I do mean dread — around this day might be mitigated for many people.”

He added that Father’s Day marketing should be handled with the same care.

Warman, who lost both of his parents when he was 27, was addressing Parliament about the government’s role in supporting bereaved Britons. It happened that his speech fell on the week of Mother’s Day.

“This week … mothers up and down the country will be appreciated through cards, breakfast in bed, and often questionable artwork from their children. For some, though — myself included — that day is a reminder of what we have lost. To use the modern jargon, it is a trigger.”

Culinary brand Momofuku Goods provided the option for the first time this year and has already seen 10,000 email subscribers opt out of Mother’s Day messaging, according to the company’s retention and lifecycle marketing manager Emma Hughes.

Although it’s a first for Momofuku, it’s a concept Hughes had previously introduced while working with other brands.

“I, like many people, have friends and family members who have lost parents (or) children, struggled with fertility issues, or have complicated relationships with parents that make Mother’s Day (and) Father’s Day a difficult time,” Hughes told CTVNews.ca in an email on Tuesday. “I think it’s important to remember that your email list is filled with many people who could be experiencing similar pain and sadness during these holidays.”

Fable Home introduced the option in 2021 and has had approximately 650 people in Canada and the U.S. opt out of Mother’s Day emails, and another 450 opt out of related texts. The company offers the same option for Father’s Day.

Fable senior marketing specialist Johanna Kuffner said the company — of which 70 per cent of the staff are women — received “overwhelmingly positive” feedback from its customers when it introduced the option.

“Many reached out to let us know that they appreciated the gesture, and we’ve continued to do it ever since,” Kuffner stated in an email to CTVNews.ca on Tuesday. 

Have you ever wanted to rekindle an old friendship, but stopped short of actually reaching out? If so, you’re not alone – a joint-study from psychologists in B.C. and the U.K. has found many people are as hesitant to contact an old friend as they would be striking up a conversation with a total stranger. Daunting as it can be to take the plunge, study co-author Dr. Lara Aknin, a professor at Simon Fraser University, did just that two years ago and reconnected with her friend Dr. Gillian Sandstrom at the University of Sussex. All it took was a message on New Year’s Day. “I reached out to Gillian and said, ‘Happy New Year, I miss you,’” Aknin said. The two psychologists, who met years earlier as graduate students at the University of British Columbia, ultimately decided they would work on a project together – and fittingly chose to explore the ways people re-spark friendships. What they quickly realized was many of us are stubbornly unwilling to call, text or email the people who used to play a meaningful role in our lives. “So the project became an effort to document that, to try to understand it, and to perhaps help people overcome it,” Aknin said. Fear of being an ‘imposition’ For their research paper, the co-authors conducted a series of studies involving nearly 2,500 combined participants, with the first shedding light on how common lapsed friendships are, even among young adults. Of the 441 university students surveyed for that initial study, just 40 of them – or about nine per cent – said they had never lost touch with an “old friend,” defined as someone they remained fond of and still cared about. Yet the vast majority of the 91 per cent who had lost touch with someone expressed feeling either neutral or negative about the idea of reaching out, for a host of complicated reasons. “At the top of the list was the concern, or the fear, that reaching out after all this time might be awkward, and that their friend might not be interested in hearing from them,” Aknin said. “They were just worried that they would be an imposition in their friend’s life.” Guilt over having drifted apart was another powerful psychological hurdle holding people back. Dr. Lara Aknin, left, and Dr. Gillian Sandstrom met at graduate school at UBC. (Source: SFU) Interestingly, a follow-up study found people were much more enthusiastic about the idea of an old friend contacting them out of the blue instead. “People were way more interested in reconnection when they were imagining hearing from an old friend, which I think suggests that people are not aversive to the idea of reconnection, they just maybe don’t want to be the one to initiate it,” Aknin said. Are old friends just strangers? For another of the studies, 453 participants were asked to draft a message to an estranged friend as an exercise – then later encouraged to go ahead and send their note. Fewer than one-third of them actually followed through. That was the case even though the participants “wanted to reconnect” with their friend, believed their friend “wanted to hear from them,” and had the person’s contact information, according to the paper. Aknin and Sandstrom theorized that part of the reason for that apprehension is that, over time, we start to view old friends as strangers – and many of us have a strong aversion to approaching people we don’t know, fearing we won’t know what to say or won’t enjoy the conversation. But contrary to those common worries, research has found even brief conversations with strangers actually tend to “boost short-term happiness,” the co-authors noted. For their last study, the psychologists used a method shown to ease those types of anxieties – a sort of “warm up” exercise where participants spent a few minutes chatting with people they’re more at ease talking to, such as current companions or relatives. Those who did were much more willing to then go out on a limb and message a long-lost friend. “Just over 50 per cent of people who had done their warm-up activity sent the message, compared to around 30 per cent (who had not) – so that increased reaching-out rates by almost two-thirds,” Aknin said. The psychologists noted that friendships, new and old, are among the most reliable ways we can improve our well-being – and suggested the contacts that are already in our phones or social media accounts might be “very safe choices” for seeking out those connections. It certainly worked out for the two co-authors. “We went from not talking for probably a year or two to being in contact probably once a week, on average,” Aknin said. “That was a true delight.” Are old friends really strangers, after all? Or might they be the same people you got along with so well to begin with? There’s only one way to find out.

Some people love to wash their car, and for others, it’s their most hated chore. It’s a necessity for car owners, so no matter where you fall on the love-hate spectrum, you want a car wash that’s going to give your car a deep clean that lasts. Automatic car washes are at almost any gas…

  When you take your car to the car wash, there are multiple add-ons available, and one common choice is spray-on wax. It may seem like it doesn’t make a difference, but there are some important benefits. And these benefits go beyond how shiny your will car looks. What Are the Benefits of Waxing Your…

Even when you are lucky enough to start with an empty room, it can be overwhelming to design an interior that you can enjoy for years to come. Following some basic interior design principles, you can transform your space into a relaxing room you will be comfortable and happy with. Decide what your focal point will be and build out from there.  For best results, keep proportion and scale in mind as you decorate as well as these tips!

 Deciding on Your Focal Point
Do you have a magnificent bay window with an incredible view?  Is there an ornate mantle that is the reason you fell in love with your home? Or is there something you absolutely MUST HAVE in the room? Situate your furniture around your chosen focal point to create balance and equilibrium. If your room does not already have an existing focal point, create one with oversized art or add an accent point like a free-standing fireplace, they come in a variety of sizes and styles. Symmetrically balance the room evenly so that both sides mirror one another.  This will help your chosen focal point stand out all the more! Use matching accent tables to flank your sofa or use different pieces of furniture to create a copacetic visual impact, like two similar armchairs to balance a sofa.
Repetition for Rhythm
Rhythm creates a flow and helps direct the eye to the differing visual elements in your room. Just as the notes of a favorite song repeat to create the rhythm, repetition in decor will create a rhythm throughout a home. Establish visual interests with a rhythm throughout your space by placing similar colours or patterns at intervals and repeat in artwork, cushions or area rugs.

Perfect Proportion and Suitable Scaling
Who doesn’t love a large, overstuffed chair? But if your room is on the smaller size it may look out of place and make your room seem even smaller than it is. Keep proportion in perspective. Proportion is the ratio between a piece of furniture and the size of a room. Scale is the size of a piece of furniture in relation to the other pieces of furniture in the room. A super large chair will overpower an apartment of loft size sofa or loveseat and create a sense of unbalance in the room.

Have your room humming harmoniously
Creating harmony will enhance how much you will continue to love your finished. Pull the room with a subdued colour palette for a pleasing, harmonious vibe.   together for a pleasing, harmonious look with a subdued color palette. You can also use a single colour for elements that vary in size and shape. Check out our blog on Doing White on White Right! for more tips!

What is the focal point in your room?  What is your best tip to find harmony and balance through your home?