Opinions on headline and breastfeeding photo range from "relevant" to "reckless"
The mission of a magazine cover is to jump out of the crowded newsstand and instantly grab your heart, mind or gut with just a photo and a headline. Well, it's mission uber-accomplished for the May 10 issue of Time Magazine, which promoted a story on "attachment parenting" with a cover photo of a mother breastfeeding her three-year-old son, along with a headline that dared, "Are You Mom Enough?" The cover sparked debate on talk shows, social media and was the top search term the day after publication.
The most effective magazine covers are a unique blend of journalistic, communications and advertising expertise—after all, they're meant to sell. The Los Angeles Times called the cover a "shocking stroke of genius." Others stopped at "shocking." We work the ad beat, so we wondered what advertising experts thought about it. Better yet, what do women in advertising think?
Here are some insightful opinions from women executives:
Ruth Bernstein, Co-Founder and Chief Strategic Officer, YARD:
"I loved the cover. It made me look. It made me think. It made me wonder if the benefits go beyond the child, as to how the mother stays so slim. The cover made me feel much better about the fact my own three-year-old still comes into our bed at night every so often. Look, the truth is, we live in a world where women are shown in sexually suggestive ads with a $2 hamburger and bodies that are airbrushed into skeletons. The TIME cover was provocative, but there's a purpose: a relevant conversation about parenting that real women are actively participating in. Certainly there were those who were shocked by it…but maybe as a society we need to question what we're truly shocked by."
Sara Rotman, Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Creative Officer of MODCo Creative:
"As art directors/image makers, our job is to manipulate the (implied) meaning of imagery in order to illicit a particular response. In this case, the casting, pose, styling and setup of the image create a clearly implied sexuality between mother and child that pushes all of our buttons. How can that not be shocking?"
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