Mother’s Day is a painful reminder for some people, and companies are letting customers opt out of ads. The holiday can exacerbate grief for people who have lost mothers or children or have other reasons to avoid the day. Some messages, particularly, seem to jab at the heart, for example, the subject line, “Laura, your mum is waiting for her surprise . . .”

Several companies send messages before the holiday to give customers options. For example, Canva sent the email shown here. The global head of communications explained, "Our core values are about being a force for good, and we, in this instance, prioritize being a good human and showing sensitivity to our community. Mother's Day seemed like one that really does have a lot of emotions around it, and so we started with that holiday, but have expanded into other areas as well." Company leaders and customers call the move “sensitive” and “inclusive” and emphasize “empowering” customers to chose which messages they receive.

For some, an email about opting out of Mother’s Day emails is, in itself, triggering, and a few critics say these messages are anti-family. But most are favorable about the approach.

Students could compare company messages. Every one of those below mentions the “difficult time.”

• Canva (above)

• M.A.C. Cosmetics

• Pandora

• Boisson

• DoorDash

• Etsy

• Pashion Planner

• Fable & Eve

These diverge only slightly with “sensitive time,” which sounds odd to me.

• Ink Cards

• Prezzybox

OpenTable got really creative with “difficult holiday.” Perhaps “difficult time” and these slight variations are best. The language is general enough and doesn’t label feelings too much. No points for originality; simple and clear is best—the least amount of time people need to engage with holiday reminders, the better.