Baby Marketing Ploys

I just received this flyer in the mail with a big picture of an adorable baby who looks like he just started walking and behind him looking proud and excited his mother softly out of focus. I assumed this was a mailing for some baby product, like all the others. No, this flyer is advertising earthquake insurance.

Does anybody have a clue what they are doing with this photo?

I imagine a photo of a real earthquake, maybe a house disintegrated into rubble and people looking dusty, wounded, and bloody might not sell insurance well. But what's with the baby? Was this just a generic stock photo that the company thought would make people stop and read their brochure? Are babies supposed to bring out our generic protective instinct? Are we supposed to think about how horrifying it would be if this baby was leveled by an earthquake just after he learned to walk, because that's what I thought.

Even creepier... does this marketing campaign somehow know I am a parent? Did some corporation sell an advertising company my data? Do they send other people mailing with different pictures? Do seniors get an image of a happy couple sitting on porch swing.

Anyway I do not plan on buying the insurance, but the flyer certainly got me thinking.

Books - The Runaway Bunny

Not sure if it is maternal hormones or what, but I just love this story: "The Runaway Bunny" by Margaret Wise Brown and illustrated by Clement Hurd.

The pair that constructed this book are also the author and illustrator of "Goodnight Moon", but I think this is actually my favorite of the pair.

The story begins:
Once there was a little bunny who wanted to run away.
So he said to his mother, "I am running away".
"If you run away," said his mother, "I will run after you.
For you are my little bunny."

The little bunny proceeds to explain to his mother all the places he will run away and all the things he will turn into, and his mother explains that no matter where he goes she will follow him and find him. It perfectly captures how I feel about my son.

It does not help my emotional side that this book was in a heartbreaking scene in the movie "Wit".