Mumsnet Talk

GAP are running a promotional campaign called "Mondays are for Mums". I think this stinks and reinforces a very negative message about gender roles that no parent should wish to be associated with. What are dads supposed to make of "Mondays are for Mums"? I'm not sure how GAP could put it in clearer terms and I think it stinks. How about a consumer campaign in solidarity with dads and in solidarity with mums who want to be supported in the notion that it's okay for dad to do the shopping.

Wellllllllll, I think it depends on what the inference is that 'mums' do on Monday.

I suspect it isn't go to Iceland.

Um, that promotion ended last April. Unless I missed something somewhere...

@Tee2072 - Yes, you missed something. The promotion is being run again in October 2011.

Count me in. Not a Gap fan anyway. Overpriced and generally bad quality. You wash their clothes a couple of times and they always lose their shape. Staff are generally not nice/helpful in my experience. H&M children's/baby clothes for me all the way.

Well, they aren't promoting it well, if a Google search only shows April!

Anyway, GAP is too expensive so I guess, by default, I already boycott them.

And do the vouchers say only mother's can use them?

@yellowsubmarine41 - I don't think there's any inference about what mums should do on Mondays. GAP are running a sale every Monday this month and obviously wish to communicate this fact, but their manner of promoting it with the catchy title "Mondays are for Mums" stinks.

I agree - it does stink and actually doesn't make much sense. So with Johnny Boden saying women over a certain age look revolting if they don't wear frumpy clothes I'm not going to have anywhere left to buy my children's clothes at this rate!

Maybe dad does the shopping for the other 6 days of the week.......

Maybe most of us just carry on anyway snd take zero notice!

What would a boycott achieve?another pointless 'campaign'

Sorry TIFF, that was to the OP.

@LoveBeingAMummyAgain - Maybe he does, maybe he doesn't, but it's bloody useful for mum and dad to have the flexibility to decide between themselves without some stupid retailer muddying the waters with careless gender stereotyping.

GAP are trying to peddle the message that they're 'pro-mum,' but their conception is anti-mum, unless you happen to be a mum who subscribes to the stereotype. This happens a lot and should be seen for what it is. It lets dads off the hook or discourages them and puts mums on the hook and undermines them.

Those pesky GAP people

Muddying the waters in marraiges up and down the country

Eh? I'm not sure I get the campaign or the objection to it?

Is the inference that the kids are back to school after a hectic weekend of having to feed and entertain them, so it's time for the (obviously SAH ) mum to put her feet up / go shopping?

IMO tasteless and sexist but not enough to warrant an MN boycott.

Oh I know dad just pays for it.

Silly and annoying (as is GAP's entire "mark everything up by 45% then spam everyone with constant 30% off vouchers so you think you're getting a bargain" marketing philosophy) but a boycott? Really? I feel there are more important things to be concerned about.

@LoveBeingAMummyAgain - This is a parenting site. I think it's important for parents to reject in the clearest possible terms messages that let fathers off the hook or undermine them as parents if they don't conform to a stereotype and puts mothers on the hook or undermine them as parents if they don't conform to a stereotype. Gender stereotypes matter unless you subscribe to them. They're a trap.

Sorry, last posting intended for @AnyoneButLulu - copy and paste problem!

diotoma, please could you explain to me what it is about this marketing strategy that irks you so.

I'm unclear from your explanations.

Is it because Gap are offering special privileges on a Monday for mummies?

Surely, anyone with an ability to think critically will perceive this as some dumb construct thought out by utter wallies, who think that may boost their companies revenue on a tired day, and pay very little heed to it?

And, please, I would prefer it if you didn't "@" me.

I really think you are giving GAP and a four word advertising campaign waaay too much power.

If you look for a reason to be offended, you will find it.

::agrees with tee::

Were you expecting us all to jump on your bandwagon op?

For this to make national news or something? ( MN is good at that)

It seems like you are clutching at straws and trying to make it a BIG deal, it's a non issue really.

Fucking hell, of all the truely awful things going on in the world you would really waste your time on this??

'Mondays are for mums?'

Yea, thats awful that is.

What bastards Gap are.

DARING to give us mums 10% off on a monday.

Sickos.

Yes sorry folks, tis Monday DC are at school I'm drinking coffee and MN. Dishwasher is running will start on other jobs later.
Have certainly been known to sneak to the shops on Monday to unwind. I'm sure Mums who work part time do to.
Gap encouraging trade on a quiet day, why not get ye of your high horse before ye falls off!

SIOB. tee? Did you, Cauldron, just call me tee?!?

::faints::

Mondays are for mums eh? So? If you dont like it, dont participate.

As an aside how do you prove you are a mum? Do you have to show your stretchmarks or squirt them with breastmilk?

Oh, I thought this was a child labour thread . . .

eh?

Mondays IS for mums. I love mondays! I love the weekend, and I love mondays! Because on monday, I am really tired after a busy weekend, and to think that it was mums day every monday to chill, relax and have ME time, thats perfect. It might even mean a browse in Gap, but that is by the by.

It is up to me thouhg. And I doubt my husband would even notice the campaign, and if he did, he would not automatically assume that it is MY duty to go shop in Gap....

omg
is this all people have to worry about

And I have to add that Monday is a Mum's day for many Mums or should we ignore the fact that women are more likely to do most of the housework and childcare over a weekend?

Riven, yes, the op feels this is worth campaigning about!! I wonder what kind of bubble she lives in!

I cant see the issue tbh. I love Mondays, it is my day off. I rarely do any housework on a Monday and my sister and I usually do go for a bit of shopping and maybe do lunch.

Were you also offended at the Pizza Hut advert a few years ago where the mums all celebrated the kids returning to school by going there. There were no dads in that edvert either.

applauds Riven. surely the MN collective has more pressing social issues it could look at

It's not that they're giving special privileges to mums - I'm sure dads are not excluded from attending on Mondays and claiming the discount - it's just that if they attend they will know they do so as proxy-mums. Is that what they are if they shop for their kids? Can't dads do this as dads?

I'm not looking for a reason to be offended. I think gender stereotyping is offensive and constraining. The entire of Mumsnet is jam-packed with complaints and campaigns about it and every opponent says 'what's the big deal', 'anyone with the ability to think critically, etc', 'you're over-estimating the importance', etc, etc. Isn't that so?

well said Riven

So how many people have joined your 'campaign'?

And what have you actually done about it so far?

have you actually contacted them to say you find it offensive?

AmazingBouncingFerret your post made me choke on my lunch.

<wipes tears of laughter from eyes>

I dont see the problem.
I also dont see why you are getting so worked up about it when there are so many other more important thing you could be getting in a tizz about.

<makes a note in the diary to visit GAP next Monday>

Agree, it is a bit trite, but hardly worthy of a "campaign".

<sneaks in behind Rhino in the queue outside local Gap store>

I haven't been to gap in a while, this thread has only served to make me wonder whats in their new winter collection!!! I'm thinking of shopping in there now op!!

Hi - my first posting - not sure exactly how or where to do it! Anyway, I had almost completely forgotten about he lovely Peter Doherty until I saw his pasty face plastered on a bus recently advertising his new collection for The Kooples. Are they joking?! While their previous ad campaigns are painfully 'too cool for school' choosing a drug addicted, convicted fellon, lowlife as its poster boy is taking it a bit too far! Regardless of his supposed 'talent' I cannot fathom why the French revere him. I have teenage children. How can I explain this to them? Just seeing a picture of Pete, excuse me, Peter, makes me want to crawl out of my skin, never mind don a 'veste' inspired by him. Can we boycott The Kooples? Or at least tell their customers to ask for a divorce!