Your mom. Heh. What does it say about me that the implication of “your mom” jokes make me laugh more than the actual “your mom” jokes that may (or may not) follow?
MS&L is working with Western Union to let everyone show off their moms in all their glory. Wait. Does that sound weird? In any case, Western Union started a “Return the Love” campaign, which is centered on celebrating mothers and encouraging loved ones to give them the perfect gift. As part of this campaign, Western Union set-up a Flickr page where people can share photos of their moms. Each week, Western Union will select photos from this gallery to display on their home page (so go upload one of your mom!)
“Return the Love” is a multi-faceted, integrated consumer campaign designed to encourage consumers to send the gift of cash, this Mother’s Day. “Return the Love” campaign elements include:
- Kick-off special performance dedicated to Moms featuring Wyclef Jean and Paulina Rubio at the Billboard Latin Music Awards, on April 29, produced and broadcast live by Telemundo.
- Several Wyclef Jean and Paulina Rubio performances and consumer-facing events, including a special concert honoring military moms; (This past weekend Western Union hosted a concert at Camp Pendleton for military families. You’d think I would have heard about this, living in San Diego and all. Then again, I don’t really know any military families, so why would I have heard about it?)
- Advertising via print, broadcast, radio, out-of-home, mobile and online channels showcasing the myriad of ways mom shows her love to her children, from giving them 12,368 kisses to changing 5,345 diapers and preparing 19,710 meals;
- In the social media space, Western Union dedicates a tab on its Facebook page encouraging fans to share how they are honoring and celebrating their moms;
To promote the “Return the Love” campaign, Western Union sent me a $50 Western Union gift card. They also sent me five additional $50 Western Union-branded gift cards to give to my favorite moms (because you’re all a mom to someone – your kids, a cat, a dog, sometimes husbands/significant others/childish co-workers) on Mother’s Day! The gift cards can be used anywhere at any time – maybe to buy your mom a nice present!
To enter, leave a comment on this post and tell me something about your mom. Something funny, something quirky, something boring… if for some reason you didn’t have a mom, you can say whatever you want.
The giveaway will be open through the end of Friday, May 7th, 2010, 11:59 PM PST (wait, are we PST or PDT now?). MS&L is sending the cards to me, and then I need to get them to you, so you may not get the gift card in time to buy a Mother’s Day present, but I believe moms should be appreciated all year round, not just on that one day, anyway.
I’ll start: My mom was a flight attendant for most of my life. I always thought it was normal to have your mom go away for days at a time and come back with a suitcase full of international goodies because I didn’t know any other way. Usually, we looked forward to her trips because it meant my dad would take us to Vons and we could pick out frozen meals for dinners (kid’s meals with brownies, chicken pot pies…) Don’t get me wrong, my mom was a great cook (and baker), but those weird meals with frozen dessert in the top-center part of the tray was oddly appealing at the time. When my mom was home, she spent a lot of time with us, volunteering at school, driving for field trips, and just being our mom. I couldn’t imagine growing up any other way.
ps – Vote for Cassie!
Three Dog Kitchen 
My mom has the most amazing laugh. Whenever I talk to her, I always try to say something stupid or funny just to hear her laugh 🙂
I used to collect butterflies as kid until my mom told me a story about a little girl who was taken away from home by a gang of butterflies never to see her family again. I stopped collecting butterflies from that moment on.
I hear those butterfly gangs can get pretty rough.
How fun! I remember a good couple of years of my teens involved with ‘your mom ennit’ ‘thats your mom that is’ and then rolling around the floor. Oh dear.
These days I mostly keep up with my mum on Flickr, she refuses to use facebook, and I’m rubbish at phoning, so we’re like passing ships in the night, checking out each others photos and seeing how the other is doing. Recently I got to see her having a whale of a time in Avignon, France with her second cousin.
She’s a fantastic lady, so full of enthusiasm and affection, sometimes too much and I’m not very gracious in accepting all the effervescence.
I am fortunate that my parents live close enough for us to visit occasionally. It probably helps that they live in Las Vegas, which means there’s a lot to do when we’re there!
My mom used to perm our (sisters) hair at home. I have “fond” memories of stinky chemicals, spongy papers, and green rollers. She even had a pop-up drier that we would have to sit under. Ah…the 80s.
My mom was the one to finally convince me to buy a Vespa. We had walked by one on display in the Thousand Oaks Mall, and I said “Boy, I sure would like one of those.” She asked “Why don’t you get one?” I said, “Dad would KILL me.” She said, “Who cares what Dad thinks?” So a month later, I bought one. Of course, ever since then, she’s been the one who wishes it was a phase I would grow out of. Oh well.
YOUR mom taught me how to play Blackjack and introduced me to the joys of meatloaf. I still think she makes the best meatloaf and meatloaf sauce, ever.
Why do people think it’s weird we played blackjack using peanuts as currency?
I can make my mom’s meatloaf sauce, but my meatloaf pales in comparison. She uses a combination of ground beef and pork to make it tasty, I know that much.
I’m going to tell you about my step mom. My siblings & I totally lucked out when my dad married Bea. She’s the type of person that will drop everything to be there for you. One weird thing about her though is you can’t take her anywhere without running in to someone she knows. We could 100 miles away from the town we live in & she will run into someone she knows. Yard sales, stores, restaurants, getting gas. Doesn’t matter. She’ll run into someone she knows.
My mom has always put family first. She spent lots of time with us kids while we were growing up…volunteering in Kindergarten classes, driving us to activities, cooking with us. She was and is great!
Growing up, my mom was the mom that all my friends liked and they always wanted to spend time at my house because my mom was so welcoming and funny.
There’s so much I could tell about my mom but oddly the first thing that popped into my head was the Checkers (the 3rd) and Pogo muumuu that my mom made for me because I loved their show when I was little. Checkers and Pogo were a local HI children’s show hosts. Gee, I think I just dated myself. But anyway, my mom used to love to make clothes for me, sewing, knitting, crocheting. And there’s pictures of me in every single outfit that she’s ever made for me. She raised us as a single mom, which is never easy. But even working 10 hour shifts, 6-days a week, she was always there for us.
My Mom’s favorite saying when I was young and asking for money was, “It’s Miss America not Bank of America”. Still cracks me up 🙂
When I was 11, my mom and my aunt June got me tipsy on strawberry daiquiris and we skipped down the road singing “We’re off to see the wizzard”. She reminds me of it every time we get a second glass of wine in her hand. My little mommie.
My mom used to dress up as “Cookie” the clown for mine and my cousin’s birthdays.
I remember when me and Mom would go to the Casino all the time~she would page me when she would win just to tell me 🙂
My Mom, Western Union and a giveaway are all very generous
My mom loves animals, just like me 🙂
The funniest thing about my Mom is her insistence that she is helpless femme fatale. But she can out bench press my dad and can defend herself like the fiercest mother bear.runningmatey at hotmail dot com
My mom has always amazed me with her talents in so many different areas — cooking, baking, gardening, painting, sewing, auto repair — you name it, she can do it! Too bad she didn’t pass any of those talents along to me (I guess she used up all the talent genes!).
My mom used to babysit so I grew up with her around, and I had a lot of extra “brothers” and “sisters” which was great. We’re very close.
My loves to sew beautiful dresses for my daughters. She is an awesome Mom!
My Mom was married April 28, Her 4th child was born april 28 ( not me), her first grandhild was born April 28, her 3rd grandchild was born April 28th (one of mine),
Mom is deceased but her 1st 5th and 6th great grand child were born april 28th. My daughter whose bd is April 28 tried on her 5th child for April 28 but he was born April 29 at 1:10 AM Close but no cigar.
Back in the days before we owned a VCR, you could go to an AM-PM, rent one and two movies over a weekend for $10. So one Friday after school, I was cooling my heels at home when mom came home from running errands, VCR and movies in hand. I don’t remember the other movie (maybe a Steve Martin comedy?) but the one she picked out for me was “The Evil Dead.”
“This looks really gruesome — and it’s got a Stephen King recommendation right here on the cover. PUT IT IN THE VCR AND FIRE THAT BAD BOY UP!” That was mom talking, by the way… not me.
If you haven’t seen “The Evil Dead,” suffice it to say it’s not a first-date movie. And probably not one you’d want to watch with your mom, especially during Cheryl’s raped-by-the-forest scene, or the pencil-in-Linda’s-ankle scene, or the log cabin axe-a-thon scene, or the head-in-the-fireplace scene, or the decapitation-with-a-shovel scene, or the thumbs-in-Scott’s-eyesockets scene, or the shotgun-in-the-face scene… but we did. And it’s still my favorite splatter movie.
Thanks, mom.
MY FAVORITE MEMORY OF MY MOM IS her brewing tea for the two of us.
My mom passed recently, but my favorite thing about her was that she was always there for me, always loved me unconditionally, even when I was sometimes unloveable. sammiejanL40@aol.com
When you play the game you would recognize that it is solely predicated on judgement and
approaches; it’s possible to lose if they don’t understand how to perform.