Honoring Mothers in Thailand

Mother’s Day is celebrated on various days in many parts of the world and also has different meanings and origins. Wisanlaya Charoenruk has been working at NIVEA Thailand for almost 5 years now. She is responsible for the digital communication of NIVEA and gives us some insights into the formation process of the new digital Mother’s Day campaign and its cultural backgrounds.

“What is important to know in advance for our video creation is that in Thai society, the royal family is widely respected. The Queen Sirikit is regarded as the mother of our country, thus, her birthday is also celebrated as Mother’s Day. It is a national bank holiday and our whole nation immerses in festivities. We celebrate it with fireworks and parades along the streets, our households and public places are decorated with lights and portraits of the Queen Sirikit.

On the occasion of this Thai holiday, we launched this new Mother’s Day online campaign called ‘MOMORY’. It is a part of our overall approach to enhance the caring image of NIVEA in Thailand through campaigns on special occasions starting off with Mother’s Day, followed by Father’s Day in December which is as well the Kings birthday.

The word ‘MOMORY’ is a combination of ‘MOM’ and ‘MEMORY’. It was developed by taking different cultural insights into account. For instance, in the Thai language, we use many metaphors that include a mother’s hands. For example, ‘Rod Meu Mae’ (in Thai รสมือแม่) which means that food made from your mom’s hand is the best or ‘Song Meu Mae Nee Tee Sang lok’ (in Thai สองมือแม่นี้ที่สร้างโลก) which means that the mother’s hands do everything for her child. That is why, in the video’s last scene, when the mother’s hand touches her child’s face, the daughter is reminded of everything her mom did for her. It makes her aware of the unconditional love from her mother. Also the kneeling down in front of her mom is a culture habit of ours: Thailand schools typically host a Mother’s Day ceremony at which mothers come to their kid’s school and each child kneels at his or her mother’s feet, showing love and gratitude and paying respect to what she has done for them.

So the video story focuses on remembering and honouring our mothers who dedicate their whole lives to loving and taking care of us. We really hope that the video will touch everyone’s heart and resonate well with the family values in Thailand. Have fun watching!”