May 1, 2007 - M-Day

The main reason that yesterday's contest was about Mother's Day shopping was to give all of our dedicated subscribers an early reminder about the big day that's only 12 days away. It's always a good thing to think about your mother, and it's never too early to think about Mother's Day. Sure, she probably already has everything she needs, and if you get her anything nice she'll probably say you shouldn't have … or ask how much it cost. But, she's worth it for sure. After all she is your mom - hours of labor, changing diapers, being thrown up on, planning birthday parties, taking you to school, helping you with your class projects, cooking you dinner, making sure that you fly straight, and all those other many things she gives you.

So, now that you've seen it on Edhat, you have no excuses. If you love her, you will buy her presents. And, they won't be of the last minute variety. Also, if you are good little kiddo, you won't fidget when she speaks to you or track mud across her nice clean kitchen floor.

Yesterday the dedicated staff of edhat.com went out looking for signs of the approaching day. We walked down State Street to see how many stores were advertising the day as a reason to walk in their doors and buy their stuff. Of course State Street these days is not very mom-oriented. The shops along what used to be our funky little downtown street now mostly sell clothing to the pre-mom crowd. Yep, it's mostly disposable clothing for the disposable income folks.

We looked at a total of 105 storefronts, and we only counted 10 of them playing the mom card. A few had slogans telling you to care:

Show mom sumbody loves her.
Treat mom right.
Don't forget mom!

Some signs just had a reminder notice tacked on to existing advertising. At Sephora, it looks like mom is a twenty-something, determined woman who is so ugly that she needs to put her make-up on with power tools. At a phone store, mom still has a landline, even though she looks young enough to be born after Al Gore invented the Internet. This year they're offering free text messages on Mother's Day.

hppy mday i luv u mom. ttfn

It's the thought that counts. LOL.

In addition to phones and make-up, individual products being pitched as mom-friendly are soap, candy, hair dryers, socks, pearls, jewelry cleaners, mirrors, earrings, cards, and outdoor clothing.

Doing the math, the final answer to our contest question of what percent of stores display Mother's Day ads is 9.5%. Contestants guessed high. Subscriber Chicken Wing was the closest. Wing wins an Edhat t-shirt - the perfect mday psn.

Check out our Mother's Day sign picture gallery.