We talk a lot about the joy of becoming a mother. The loneliness, the anxiety and the fear—they rarely take center stage. This week, those feelings were front and center at Advertising Week New York.
For the Ad Council, Advertising Week was an opportunity to bring our partners together around questions central to our work: What makes creative endure? How can we reach people with mental health support in their everyday lives?
As I listened to those conversations, I found myself relating to them less as a communicator and more as someone they were intended to reach—a mom navigating many of the same questions, emotions and uncertainties being discussed on stage. Creating work that resonates emotionally is central to our mission, and experiencing those messages from the audience's perspective offered a powerful reminder of why that responsibility matters. It also made me think differently about how storytelling can help new moms talk about experiences they've kept to themselves.
Continuing to listen as the work develops
The Secret to Motherhood, the latest creative from our “Love, Your Mind” campaign, was informed by mothers' voices from the early days of research through the final rounds of creative testing. That continued input was essential. Listening can reveal an assumption we need to revisit, language that doesn’t ring true or a creative visual that needs more work.
At the Ad Council, all of our work depends on understanding what people need and bringing partners together to help meet those needs.
What mothers helped us understand
The Secret to Motherhood grew out of months of research with mothers and input from experts. With one in five moms impacted by maternal mental health conditions, the need for support is clear. But the pressure to appear perfect can make it difficult for mothers to admit that something is wrong.
That tension shaped the creative approach. The campaign brings forward feelings many mothers experience but hesitate to share: self-doubt, loneliness and the struggle to adjust to how much their lives have changed. By making those experiences visible, the work helps moms recognize that they aren’t alone and that seeking support is part of caring for themselves and their baby.
Brought to life pro bono by creative agency Mischief, The Secret to Motherhood challenges the idea that mothers have everything figured out and directs new and expecting moms to practical tools and expert-vetted resources.
In the campaign announcement, Bianca Guimaraes, founding partner & executive creative director at Mischief, shared her experience with postpartum depression, including the hours she spent walking with a stroller, trying to pass the time. She described thoughts she felt she couldn’t say out loud.
“I loved my children deeply. I was also struggling deeply. Both things can be true.”
What I love about this campaign is that it gives mothers permission to acknowledge how they feel without having to defend their love for their baby. Its creative approach responds to something mothers are actually experiencing.
And as I attended our Advertising Week panels, I saw a connection between the ambition to build enduring creative and the responsibility to understand the people we’re trying to reach. Personal stories help us ask better questions. Research and testing help us understand how those experiences translate to a broader audience.
Creativity, connection and support
The Ad Council’s presence at Advertising Week started off when our chief campaign and program officer, Heidi Arthur, moderated “Building Creative That Endures” with Accenture Song’s Nick Law, Droga5’s Rafael Rizuto and Cindy Gallop, founder of MakeLoveNotPorn.
The session put lasting creative at the center of the conversation.
Later the same day, Heidi joined the panel “After the Scroll: Taking Mental Health Where the Algorithm Can’t Reach,” alongside Shira Lazar, founder of Creators for Mental Health and Liz Rave of OUTFRONT. Together, the three of them explored bringing mental health conversations beyond the feed and into the real world.
During “From Silence to Support: Reimagining Maternal Mental Health” in The Female Quotient’s FQ Lounge, the question that seemed to ring through the air was “How do we create something that people recognize themselves in and that reaches them when they need it?”
In front of a standing-room-only crowd, Heidi moderated the session with Adrienne Griffen of the Maternal Mental Health Leadership Alliance, Bianca Guimaraes of Mischief and Mariah Youngblood of WPP Media. Around me, women were nodding as the panelists spoke about maternal mental health struggles and the experiences stigma keeps hidden. It was one of the most moving panels I’ve witnessed, bringing together personal stories and the creative strategy behind our new work.
It also reinforced the stakes of listening to moms at every step. Before the Ad Council could ask someone to take action, we needed to understand what might make that action difficult—even when they know it could help.
I’m proud of this newest chapter of “Love, Your Mind” and grateful to the mothers and partners who helped shape it. Explore the campaign and its resources.