Dear Wonderful People at Pillsbury,
As the holiday season approaches, I find myself in a bit of a cookie conundrum. My festive spirit is dwindling, and I’m reaching out in hopes that you might empathize with my plight.
For the fourth time this week, I’ve attempted to whip up a batch of cookies with my adorable children, inspired by those cheerful ads that promise to help us “stir up a batch of memories.” Unfortunately, I have tried and failed—miserably.
I’ve dutifully played your holiday carols, dressed the kids in their matching reindeer sweaters, and arranged mugs brimming with hot cocoa on the counter. I envisioned my children behaving like the ones in your commercials—sharing, smiling, and delighting in our beautifully decorated sugar cookies. But alas, reality has a way of dashing those dreams.
I kindly ask that you consider recreating your ads to reflect the truth of holiday baking for us mere mortals. Show us the exhausted mothers muttering under their breath while battling dough that stubbornly sticks to every surface. Perhaps you could borrow a scene from my life—complete with a frazzled mom and two kids arguing over whether they can use a Halloween cookie cutter to make “angel” cookies.
Where are the kids who sneak raw dough into their mouths while trying to comfort their flustered moms? In your imagery of the “perfect winter day,” where is the chaos that comes with baking? Please, include a shot of the mother whose hair is a tangled mess of flour and dough, or the aroma of burnt sugar wafting through the air. And let’s not forget the siblings arguing over who gets to use the cookie cutters!
I can’t help but feel that your ads undermine the confidence of American women trying to create joyful holiday moments. You package everything so neatly, making it seem effortless, but what about when the star-shaped cookies look more like deformed sea creatures? How am I supposed to present an angel cookie that looks like it just survived a wrestling match?
This holiday season, I believe we deserve a bit of honesty. Show us the reality of baking with kids—like the mother who is tempted to shape cookies into something less than festive (that’s me, by the way). Let’s see the kids who are secretly wishing their mom would just bring napkins to the class party instead of cookies.
Let’s embrace the imperfect and hilarious moments that truly create lasting memories, instead of the polished perfection our society so often expects.
Happy Holidays! I suspect I might be back with more tales come Easter.
Best wishes,
Laura Jenkins