"Don't let your migraine become someone else's pain." This is the tagline of an Excedrin Migraine TV ad. It's said over a black and white image of a mother swinging around her daughter on a beach. It promises that it will get rid of your migraine in one dosage so that you can quit ruining your child's life.
I have so many problems with this ad that I don't know where to start. It speaks volumes to the problem with women in this country not thinking that they are worth it. It doesn't even matter if it is a mother and child in the ad. It is telling women that even if you aren't worth stopping the pain of your migraine, the other people in your life are. How dare your headache infringe on other people?
I'm all for putting your child's need before your own in most cases. But a migraine? People throw up from the pain and I'm supposed to be sad because little Molly can't go play on the beach? It really bothers me that advertisers have stooped to the level of guilting women into taking care of themselves not so they are happy but so the other people in their life are happy. Has the self esteem of women gotten so low that taking medicine for a migraine has to be a selfless act? How are we going to teach our daughters to respect themselves if we don't even respect ourselves?
The idea of the selfless mother is a great fantasy. The house is always clean, dinner is always on time, and all activities revolve around her children. But this imaginary woman has been sending real, hard-working, wonderful mothers to the loony bin for decades. And now even when she is sick she is being called on the carpet by a corporation for ruining her daughter's day at the beach? Life is hard enough without feeling guilty over things that we can't control. I think it is time that women everywhere stop being so hard on each other and start patting one another on the back for doing the best they can. And then ask a mother if you can watch her kids so she can go to the spa. She may not know it but she deserves it.
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