Facebook’s biological clock is ticking with news this week, that with the advent of compulsory Timeline, everyone can now share that they’re expecting a baby, a picture, the due date, and whether it’s a boy or girl. According to The Huff Post, Facebook said “Currently we are not using this life event for ad targeting. We’ll explore the option in the future, as we observe how people use the feature.” In other words, they’re not going to start pitching baby products to you right away, but they could start at some point in the future.

This new life event for expecting a baby also demonstrates that Facebook (remember everyone, the free website you download your life onto and never really know what’s going on with your information) is growing up – from its original user base of class of 04 Ivy League jocks, to people who are now obviously, having little yank jocks of their own!

Working for Babyville, the consumer division of Clareville Communications not only creating and managing several baby focused Facebook pages, working with parenting bloggers, pregnant celebrities and the parenting media as a whole – I see a much bigger question surrounding this idea, than merely – will Facebook eventually profit from the birth of my child?

With all our clients’ campaigns, be them celebrity endorsements, product launches or even product competitions, we NEVER involve the parents until they are that, parents. With so much media attention surrounding the tragic news from high profile celebrities including Amanda Holden, Lily Cooper and Gary Barlow; can you imagine, God forbid, them having to remove the “life event” news from their Facebook profile…just to top it off! National statistics say that “from 10-25 percent of all clinically recognised pregnancies will end in miscarriage,” You have to ask,  what about the emotional car-crash when something goes wrong, Facebook? Or is that another potential advertising hook? As with anything, you can’t really blame the messenger, well the vehicle in this case, as if you post it on your profile, you yourself are the messenger – if you are a baby focused brand or represent one, I would avoid doing anything with this at all costs, despite the fact it can link in oh so well with your brand’s page. Whilst the chances are that everything will be perfect, disclosure and endorsement should still be seriously thought out and not overlooked because of excitement…