In recent days the hashtag #Esselunga has been trending for the new ad of this leading Italian supermarket chain. The ad, the work of the New York creative agency Small, has a simple plot: a girl does the shopping with her mother in the supermarket and takes a peach that, at the end of the ad, she gives to her father (separated) who has gone to pick her up at home. While they are in the car, the girl gives the peach to her father and tells him that it is a gift from her mother.
After the broadcast, some have polemicized, claiming that the company wanted to instrumentalize the emotions of a child, celebrating the traditional family. Others, on the other hand, have praised the courage of tackling divorce from the children's point of view, something that the film directed by Scott McGehee and David Siegel also did to great effect. What Maisie Knew (What we do with Maisie).
The company's intention in making the ad, according to Roberto Selva, marketing director, was to make it clear that each product placed in the shopping cart has a symbolic value beyond its simple acquisition. Beyond this message, in the background, the idea that a reconciliation between parents is possible, rectifying a decision that may have been hasty, is on the horizon.
The spot, in a way, is an invitation to think of another ending for a relationship that was born to take care of itself and just for that reason, to last. And that is what seems to have bothered some people. Adults in general seek social approval for our decisions, whether good or bad.
The more divorces there are, the more some feel the need to justify that the breakup is best for everyone, rejecting any element that might cast doubt on this. It is clear that separation may sometimes be the only option. But that does not make it something to celebrate, because it is also true that it always leaves a lot of suffering along the way.
As Shakira has well expressed in Acrosticwith phrases full of meaning when they refer to family relationships: "If things are damaged, they are not thrown away. They are repaired"; "problems are faced and dealt with"; "Learning to forgive is wise"; "May only love come out of those lips"... If only we took them seriously.
Professor at the Faculty of Law of the International University of Catalonia and director of the Institute for Advanced Family Studies. She directs the Chair on Intergenerational Solidarity in the Family (IsFamily Santander Chair) and the Childcare and Family Policies Chair of the Joaquim Molins Figueras Foundation. She is also Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Law at UIC Barcelona.
