I came across this expression twice, but even my English speaking coworkers don't know what it means. Both times I saw it in writing form, with some context like this: " It's a motherhood and apple pie approach".
Sorry I don't have more specific context- if I do I may have guessed what it means. . I can only say that it seems to be used to describe an approach, a school of thoughts, things like that.
I'm 42 years old and American and I dont know what the heck that is. I've never heard of it. If someone said that to me, I'd be like, Heh, what are talking about? Some people make up their own stuff sometimes and don't know what they're talking about, or meant to say something else.
There is another saying however, "As American as baseball, and apple pie".
U.S. advertisers exploited the patriotic connection in the 1970s with the TV jingle "baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet".
The actual phrase is usually "Mom and apple pie". It's an expression that is supposed to conjure up cozy, homespun memories. WWII soldiers stationed overseas often were quoted as saying "Mom and apple pie" when asked what they missed the most being away from home.
Also if someone says something that sounds almost treasonous, such as "I've never seen an episode of I Love Lucy." one might respond with incredulty: "What?! That show is an American classic! You might as well just admit that you hate Mom and apple pie while you're at it!"
"Motherhood and apple pie day" is celebrated each January 26 in Virginia and has been since at least 1950, though I'm not sure continuously. It is mostly used ironically to suggest things that no one could be publicly opposed to. Sometimes it was used with God and flag, but less frequently in the recent past.
I first encountered this expression when working for an American company. It was often quoted during business meetings when someone would propose a strategy that was a nice to have that nobody could argue with but in reality had absolutely no substance or novelty. For example "we will adopt a strategy of driving for growth whilst carefully controllling our underlying cost structure". This would be dismissed as a "motherhood statement".
Well, all of you are somewhat close, but not quite right - the statement "motherhood and apple pie" in a business or political context refers to statements of principles or values with which few disagree or that are obvious. That is, no one (pretty much) would disagree that motherhood is a bad thing - so someone making "motherhood and apple pie" statements is stating generally obvious things with regards to values, or in a business marketing context, the products/companies values. This is clearly an americanism but I would think the motherhood part would translate to all other cultures.