Poway mom featured in commercial during Globes
Andra Day wasn’t the only San Diego-raised woman who made a groundbreaking appearance at the Golden Globes Sunday evening. Day became the second Black woman ever to win the best actress in a drama award following her film portrayal of Billie Holiday.
Poway’s Ashley Wells got a bit of air time, as well. She co-starred in a controversial, pushing-the-envelope commercial that aired during the three-hour broadcast.
“Was that you?” texted a former University City High School classmate after it aired. “Were you lactating on national TV?”
Yes, she was, Wells confirmed. She was breastfeeding one of her twin babies in front of an international TV audience.
The 26-year-old mom was one of two young mothers featured in a 30-second commercial for Frida Mom, a Florida-based company that markets lactation and breast care products.
Five days before the Golden Globes, Frida Mom posted online a longer — and more revealing — version of the commercial.
It highlights the young mothers’ exhaustion, discomfort, pain, sleep deprivation and even frustration at trying to pump enough milk or using cabbage leaf compresses to soothe tender breasts. In less than a week, the ad had generated more than 1.8 million views on YouTube.
Online release of the cutting-edge commercial triggered articles and commentaries in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Variety, The New York Times, New York Post, Ad Age and other media.
The headlines trumpeted: “Ad During the Golden Globes to Show Turmoil of Postpartum and BreastFeeding Moms,” “First commercial showing lactating breasts to air during Golden Globes,” “On TV, a Rare Realistic Look at Breastfeeding,” “Emotional Breatfeeding Ad Airs”
“People are a little shocked,” says Wells. “This is realistic. People are not used to seeing bare breasts on TV.” She adds that breasts were made for feeding babies.
“I breastfeed, and this is natural, and this is my body,” Wells explains. “I looked tired in the ad because I am tired .... Nothing about that was acting. It takes so much time out of the day to pump and feed. It’s very overwhelming. It is everything I’ve been through — my breast-feeding journey.”
Wells, like many moms, refers to this postpartum period as the fourth trimester.
When her twin daughters were 3 months old, Wells enrolled them with an L.A. talent agency. Since then, the infants, Ayra and Wynter, have had no shortage of job offers.
When the call came out for a breastfeeding mom and baby for the Frida Mom commercial, her babies’
The San Diego County Board of Supervisors delayed a vote Wednesday on the construction of a distribution warehouse the developer proposes to lease to Amazon.
The proposed project is located at the northwest corner of Cuyamaca Street and Weld Boulevard near Gillespie Field in El Cajon.
Board Chairman Nathan Fletcher said the supervisors would revisit the item on March 17 after considering the environmental studies that have been done at the site.
Several public speakers discussed the need for an updated environmental impact study and additional California Environmental Quality Act review. They noted that the county is relying on an environmental report from the city of El Cajon that was certified in 2009 for a different project, and that an addendum to that report issued in January 2021 was not properly circulated for public review.
The city of El Cajon’s Community Development Department is working with Chesnut Properties on the proposed site plan for the center. The county owns the land, but El Cajon has land use authority and responsibility for insuring it meets state and local codes. The city has not yet approved the project.
Plans submitted to El Cajon show a 142,746-square-foot warehouse that will include a 17,000-square-foot office building, more than a dozen docking sites, and nearly 970 parking spots. There is a van loading area for 72 spaces west of the warehouse and a “staging area” for 72 vans next to the loading area.
Documents provided by the city of El Cajon say the proposed delivery station would run 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Operations would consist of about 230 delivery vans loading and departing from the delivery station at a rate of 75 vans every 20 minutes between 9:50 a.m. and 11:10 a.m. and returning to the delivery station between 7:10 and 9:10 p.m.
Lee Chesnut, the investor behind the project, said that while he agreed that holding off for two weeks was a good idea, he is “absolutely confident” the project has been “done by the book” and that it meets all county requirements and standards.