Judith and Alina are joined by Elizabeth Minton, a researcher and professor at the University of Wyoming whom they met last summer as participants in her most recent study.
In this episode, we chat about the horrors of marketing after you've lost a baby. Those incessant Similac mailers, the targeted ads for the baby bouncer you googled that one time, the happy families in every commercial on TV. Is there anything companies can do to make this easier on bereaved parents? And if there is, is it in their best interest to do so, even if it costs more? Listen to find out Elizabeth's thoughts.
Elizabeth studies pro-social marketing, religion and consumer behavior, and priming and cuing theory. She is also Solomon's mom -- her sweet baby boy died in January 2021 at 3 weeks old.
A couple of companies seem to be doing things differently this year... OpenTable and Etsy are offering opt-outs of Mother's Day promotional marketing! A step in the right direction. More on this here.
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Things we talk about in this episode:
- Mothers with Empty Arms: Marketing, Stigma, and Bereaved Mothers (extended abstract) (We will link the full paper once it's published!)
The following organizations are funding Elizabeth's current research:
- The Transformative Consumer Research Organization
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Follow As Long As I'm Living on Instagram at @aslongasimlivingpodcast, send us an email at aslongasimlivingpodcast@gmail.com, or visit us at anchor.fm/aslongasimliving! We would love to hear from you!
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As Long As I'm Living is a podcast about life, love, and laughter after infant loss. Judith and Alina are rebuilding Happier Ever After one day at a time despite excruciating grief and trauma and offering support to grievers of all flavors, but especially those who have lost a baby to SIDS, infant death, birth accidents, stillbirth, TFMR, ectopic pregnancy, or miscarriage.