OmniTalk – Mother’s Day

Dear Old Mom

Everybody has a mother and might have been searching to find out the date of that special Sunday this year known as Mother’s Day, or looking for brunch spots, or even a great gift idea. It turns out, some people even know how to punctuate Mother’s Day correctly. You see the term “Mother Day” earned 41.2 million search results, while “Mother’s Day” (with an apostrophe ‘s’) received just 5.4 million results. Though mothers are honored around the world in different ways, there are a few American traditions that I searched for the purpose of this blogpost.

Here is how Mother’s Day festivities were searched this May:

Search Words                                                  Search Results

“Mother Day” May 2017                                41,200,000

“Mother’s Day” May 2017                              5,490,000

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“Mother’s Day Cards” May 2017                    10,200,000

“Mother’s Day Gifts” May 2017                     2,980,000

“Mother’s Day Brunch” May 2017                 811,000

“Mother’s Day Flowers” May 2017                218,000

“Mother’s Day Spa” May 2017                       119,000

“Mother’s Day Jewelry” May 2017                 82,600

“Mother’s Day Sales” May 2017                     65,000

Gifts outranked brunch, but cards outranked searches for gifts, flowers or spa days. The search for “Mother’s Day spa” landed among results for spa packages, spa days, etc.

There are plenty of Mother’s Day sales at boutiques and malls alike. Though I think the sales should be for luxury items to be bought BY mom (with gift cards from her children), the search results are for gifts to be bought FOR mom. But next year, be careful! There are some results that many moms would not like. For instance, this article on Fortune.com entitled “The Best Tech Gifts for Mom.” Yeesh! A FitBit seems like a hint if she doesn’t have one already or didn’t ask for one. Don’t you dare call a toaster or a vacuum a tech toy, either. Appreciation on Mother’s Day is shown better through gifts that she would also enjoy for Valentine’s Day, rather than gifts she might buy herself.

Fathers, however, are a little different. We’ll see you next month!

OmniTalk is a monthly Google search round-up of things that happened, were searched for, and explored. It’s an interesting index of people and culture. We hope you enjoy it at the end of every month.

Leslie A.M. Smith has been an independent public relations consultant since 1994. Follow her on Twitter @LeslieAMSmith or on Facebook Facebook.com/McCormickLA

McCormick L.A. Public Relations