If you’re wondering whatever happened to family values, where the images of traditional families would dominate our TV screens, you can blame modern advertisers for mirroring real life. While some years ago we’d be bombarded with adverts depicting domestic bliss, such as the Ah Bisto family, these days we get domestic turbulence, step-dads, single mothers and break-ups.

All of it done with market research in mind, because the target audience for the products in the UK tends to be a similarly broken family. And why not, with 42% of British marriages now ending in divorce the advertisers need to aim at the single parent and the working mother.

Former Atomic Kitten and Wilmslow resident Kerry Katona is a perfect example. She’s a working single mother of four kids and she shops in Iceland. Despite all of her well publicised problems with her partner and other lifestyle ‘choices’ Kerry has just been signed up for another year as the face of Iceland. While you’d think that having someone so controversial might not sit well with the retailer, quite the opposite is true. Kerry’s controversy and constant appearances in the media spotlight have given the small retailer a much needed PR boost.

There’s no such thing as bad publicity after all.

Kerry fits the perfect British single mother stereotype, she’s had two marriages, kids with two different men, she works and she’s had personal troubles. All of this means the target audience for Iceland can identify with her, which is critical in advertising.

It’s certainly working for Iceland, as their market share has risen by 11.6% from last year, which is an impressive rise in a time when consumer spending down.

Clive Bellmore