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News release

More Than Ten Million People Saw This Video, Did You?

May 14, 2009
Health Care, Equal Pay, Paid Family & Medical Leave

Lisa Lederer, 202-371-1996

MomsRising.org Mother of the Year’ Mother's Day Video Goes Viral
Late last week, women across the U.S. began receiving an unusual Mother’s Day email message which included a humorous and entertaining, customizable short video featuring Beyoncé, a bouncing baby boy (complete with interpretive subtitles), and President Barack Obama. More than a million people honored moms across the country with the “MomsRising.org Mother of the Year” video, which is still sweeping the nation. The video, developed and produced by the online and on-the-ground grassroots organization MomsRising.org, has now gone viral with more than 10 million views to date. The campaign has also helped MomsRising.org more than triple its membership in just a few days.
 
“We were looking for a way to honor moms, share some smiles, increase our membership, and educate people with some data on moms’ earnings and economic status,” said MomsRising.org Executive Director Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner. “And we met our goals many times over. Mother’s Day 2009 was truly a banner event for MomsRising.org.”
 
People sending the video were able to customize it so that each recipient’s name appeared several times, including in a tattoo and on a banner outside a high school. Along with Beyoncé, ponytail advice, and naked dogs, this video includes serious facts about mothers in the U.S. today. The free, customizable video is still available here.
 
Established on Mother’s Day 2006, MomsRising.org has mobilized tens of thousands of moms, dads, grandparents and others to lend their support to campaigns to expand health care coverage for children, pass fair pay legislation and family leave laws, and encourage manufacturers to stop producing baby products containing known toxins.
 
“This is just the beginning,” said MomsRising.org President Joan Blades. “We have accomplished a great deal in our first three years, but there is power in numbers and with an exponentially larger membership we will do even more. Now mom power is greater than ever.”
 

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MomsRising.org is an on-the-ground and online grassroots organization of more than a million people who are working to increase family economic security, decrease discrimination against women and moms, and to build a nation where businesses and families can thrive. Established in 2006, MomsRising and its members are organizing and speaking out to improve public policy and to change the national dialogue on issues that are critically important to America’s families, including criminal justice reform, immigration policy reform, and gun safety. MomsRising is working for paid family and medical leave, affordable, high quality childcare and early learning, and for an end to the wage and hiring discrimination which penalizes women — particularly moms and women of color — and so many others. MomsRising advocates for access to healthy food for all kids, health care for all, earned sick days, and breastfeeding rights so that all children can have a healthy start. MomsRising maintains a Spanish language website: MamásConPoder.org. Sign up online at www.MomsRising.org — and follow us on our blog, and on Twitter and Facebook.