The week before Mother’s day, a restaurant chain and The Today Show promoted Mother’s Day gifts by disparaging flowers — and those were just two of the companies cited by SAF that used a negative tactic this year for a Mother’s Day marketing push. As the voice of the floral industry, the Society of American Florists contacts companies that put flowers in a negative light and asks them to reconsider their marketing approach.
Here is a list of companies recently contacted by SAF:
- McAlister’s Deli, with locations in 30 states, sent a Mother’s Day marketing email with the subject line, “Flowers are great, McAlister’s is better.”
- National news outlet The Today Show shared this Mother’s Day post on Instagram to promote a variety of gifts in partnership with Amazon. The caption stated, “Mother’s Day is only two days away, but a last-minute gift doesn’t have to mean a sad bouquet of flowers and a hastily written card.”
In addition to emailing the company directly, SAF shared the post on its Instagram page, with a statement that reads:
“On behalf of our 2,800 member companies, SAF responds to concerns about negative references to flowers. We have contacted the @thetodayshow to let them know that making negative references to flowers in order to market gifts from Amazon seems unnecessary. Products should be promoted based on their own merits rather than disparaging local floral retailers.”
Take a look at the other companies SAF has responded to during Mother’s Day 2021 in the April 28 and May 5 issues of SAF Now.
Here are some tips on how to effectively respond to negative ads yourself — using your leverage as an SAF member.
Spot a harmful ad or article about flowers? Forward them to edaly@safnow.org.
Elizabeth Daly is the marketing and communications manager for the Society of American Florists.
