Incredible Middles Cupcakes, courtesy Duncan Hines
So much for dear old Mom! Mother’s Day has barely passed by and Duncan Hines announces a new advertising campaign that will, for the first time, not feature the heartwarming scene of a mom in her kitchen, lovingly baking and frosting a cake for her adorable kids. As reported recently by Andrew Adam Newman in The New York Times, this new campaign will focus instead on “adult sensibilities”! This new campaign’s catch phrase is “The possibilities are endless with a box of Duncan Hines Decadent cake mix” and the spot ends with the exhortation to “Bake on”!
Wow! Wow! Wow! Duncan Hines has surged to the front of the barricades of the Rainbow-Sexual-Equality Revolution? Warm and fuzzy family values cast aside for a world where endless adult, decadent possibilities reign? Are we just talkin’ cake mix here? Or is this the politics of inclusion?
To be fair, Mark L. Schiller, the president of the Duncan Hines grocery division, describes this new campaign as a move from a “demographic target” of mothers and children to a “psychographic target of people who love to bake – including men who love to bake and young singles who love to bake.” Personally, I have no quibble about broadening the focus here. The right to cake mix should be shared by all.
Yet, what psychographic target is more compelling than a mom (or two moms, or two dads, or one dad) in a kitchen lovingly baking heart-warming goodies for the family? Doesn’t dismissing moms (of all sexes and persuasions) as mere “demographics” miss the point?
What is more loving than a warm cupcake?
I Am Wandrwoman! 
Giant cupcakes or small glass of milk? So hard to tell with you colonials and your eating habits!
You’ve got to admit it looks pretty delish! Far better than that cream and jelly concoction….