Creative agency Saatchi & Saatchi has partnered with Pregnant Then Screwed, a charity that is seeking to end the ‘motherhood penalty’ to launch a nationwide integrated campaign.
‘A Cry For Help’ has been launched to support a new report into the childcare crisis released by Pregnant Then Screwed, set to run across digital out-of-home, Spotify, and digital and social media in order to maximise awareness.
With an innovative creative centred around the sound of a baby crying, the campaign literally become impossible to ignore – much like the childcare crisis that the charity is trying to abate.
The work will go live from tomorrow, and will receive prominent placement via Ocean Outdoor’s high-impact East Street, Westfield London screen. Assets will run for over two weeks through to Mother’s Day (19 March).
Saatchi & Saatchi’s campaign will also shed a light on the stark findings issued in Pregnant Then Screwed’s report, which indicates that three in four mothers (76%) who pay for childcare say it no longer makes financial sense for them to work.
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“If you’ve ever tried to do anything whilst there’s the sound of a baby crying nearby… it’s impossible… even if it’s not your baby,” Saatchi & Saatchi chief creative officer, Franki Goodwin said.
“Humans are hardwired to take notice of this sound and we’re proud to have partnered with Pregnant Then Screwed to create a campaign impossible to ignore and we hope that in these weeks before Mother’s Day, our message will be heard and listened to.”
Alarmingly, with the UK’s childcare costs now in the top three most expensive across the developed world, a third of all parents (32%) who use formal childcare have admitted that they have had to rely on some form of debt to cover their childcare costs.
Pregnant Then Screwed communications director, Lauren Fabianski added: “Mothers can’t pay to go to work, it doesn’t make any sense, but after years of underfunding from the government and ever-increasing childcare fees the majority of mothers now say that it doesn’t make financial sense for them to work.
“Childcare providers are desperately underfunded, with more than half saying they operated at a loss in 2022, and on top of this we’re seeing early years workers as staff falling below the poverty line due to low rates of pay. The whole sector is on its knees, and it is continuing to collapse around us, meanwhile more and more mothers fall out of the workplace.
Concluding, she said: “That’s why we’ve partnered with Saatchi & Saatchi to create our ultimate Cry For Help in an attempt to get the Government to take the childcare crisis seriously ahead of the Spring Statement. This is a cry that they cannot ignore.”
