To dislike the new cake smash photo trend?

[Tissunnyupnorth]

Recently I have seen many ads for a new style of photo shoot. Young child is placed in front of a very large cake and basically told to smash it up, smear it anywhere and basically do what the hell they want with it, whilst being photographed.

Am I being a killjoy? Is this cute? Just find the whole thing pretty distasteful.

YANBU, it's dreadful.

Tabu to think they're new, we've had this thread a few times before I think.
yanbu about any of the rest of it. WHY??

YANBU but I'm sure lots of people will come on here and disagree with me. It's really wasteful and I don't really find it cute, just a bit gross. Of course, let them make a mess with their own slice of cake or cupcake as they enjoy eating it, but why encourage a child to ruin their food?

It's not really new, it's been around for a few years now. I don't like it either though. I don't see what's cute about making a huge mess just for the sake of it.

Also when you see a baby smeared in chocolate cake it's kind of reminiscent of... you know... shit.

It's naff as & really wasteful. Awful trend.

I think it is obscene and wasteful, that we are so spoilt in the western world that we can give a child food to destroy for pleasure. Just gross.

I'm not usually so preachy but this really gets my goat

Tacky and wasteful, IMO
Really don't understand what would possess anyone to pay £££ to have photos of their baby smeared in cake

YANBU. Stupid idea. Imagine on another day the child throws there dinner at the wall and gets told off. So its OK to create a massive mess with food when Mummy wants you to but not otherwise!

Well I think if you wanna do it and can afford it why not.
yes we did one for DS's first birthday

It's not new, it is awful. People are starving and desperate and we so this?

Should be ashamed.

What I hate, apart from the waste of food is that its just so contrived.

I have a photo of DS (now 25) from when he was about 18 months old. He had been eating spag bol and I just let him get on with it. He was covered! Very happy, but still covered in sauce! Its that kind of "oh baby got covered in dinner, how cute and funny" that they are trying to replicate, but it is so obviously not natural at all.

Just give a toddler their dinner and wait for the natural end result and photograph that if you must.

Frankly I cant blame photographers for offering this if there are people out there that are so stupid that they will pay £££ for it. Bloody idiots.

If you don't use social media, you simply don't see ads of this type.

I've only heard about these on MN, and I bet they're not frequent events. But they"ll always be someone trying to create a new must-have in the hope of finding riches. This one doesn't seem to be showing signs of moving into more general awareness.

It's stupid. Dd isn't allowed chocolate/sweets at 1 (probably me being mean though). It's wasteful too and costs loads to just smash up a cake

Seen an ad for it in a local shop window so no escape, I fear.

Food waste. Disgusting. Same as waste in general.

Nope. I'm a lifestyle photographer and I think they are abhorrent. I've clearly stated on my website that it is a conflict of interest for me to photograph such sessions and the reasons why I won't be doing so.

Had a thread on this a few weeks ago (thank you to all the lovely people that helped me out).

I hate anything to do with making a mess with,or wasting food,just for the hell of it.

I hadn't heard of this before but it sounds awful. Why would you do this? It's wasteful, terrible manners, not cute and not funny.

I got a flyer through the door last week for a cake smashing photography session. The special offer was £100 for the shoot. Pictures were extra. I suppose each to their own but it would seem a terrific waste to me.

Hate them, but I have a friend who has just done this with her son ... I won't pretend to understand.

Horrible and incredibly wasteful. Tacky in the extreme.

Excellent name Mamushka

I think they're awful too. Why teach kids bad habits and manners?

It's a really American thing isn't it? 1 year olds in the states have a 'normal 'cake with candies etc and a 'smash cake' ...I am basing this purely on watching teen mom though....

If by 'new trend' you mean there have been AIBU's about it for at least the last three years and probably longer...

Lots of people don't like it, find it wasteful etc.

Some people say it's fun, and not really anymore wasteful than other aspects of modern living.

I struggle a bit because I think objectively the 'no big deal in the grand scheme of things' people are probably right. Buying brand new paper for the sole purpose of having it ripped off a gift is 'wasteful' but nobody minds wrapping paper.

But even though I think it shouldn't be a big deal, I don't like cake smashes. Maybe I'm just too emotionally attatched to cake?

I agree with you. It's grim. It's wasteful and weirdly gluttonous! I'm not a massive fan of children with food smeared all over them anyway.