Tuesday, February 28, 2012

No, Really Huggies, What do You Think of Dads?

So, at first glance, I'd think that a Huggies campaign that shows fathers taking a hands-on role in the caretaking of small children is a good thing.

But upon closer look, I think Huggies "Nominate a Dad" campaign is actually pretty awful. The promo declares that Huggies needs help proving that their products are best "by putting them to the ultimate test. . . Dad."

The implication is that dad is so incompetent that if Huggies will work for him, they will work for anyone--you know, like any of those "normal" diaper users who don't have a penis.

You can watch a video promoting the concept here (sorry, it's a Facebook video and not embeddable). In it, they explain that they are putting their products to the "ultimate test" by leaving "dads [dramatic pause] alone with their babies [dramatic pause] for five days!" What?! But the mayhem? The horror? The tragedy? What father could possibly care for his own offspring for five whole days?! That's almost a week! That's like .0008% of the eighteen years of childhood!

I wouldn't normally embed such a low quality video, but I can't find a better version (if you find one, let me know) and you really have to see this video to get the full effect:


Here, you can hear the general premise for the "ultimate test" of "dads alone with their babies" in the introduction (with a voice over by a woman, interestingly). Here, this "test" consists of dads avoiding diaper changes through the "big game" including those "unexpected double overtimes." It shows dads bouncing their babies and demonstrating how swollen with urine their children's diapers are as they stare past them to the television screen. 

That's right. Leave your children at home with dad, and they'll be neglected for hours on end so your man can watch the all-important game. But don't worry, Huggies has you covered by preventing leaks during this willful dismissal of your child's basic needs. Not a drop of that urine soaking into your child's sensitive skin will leak out onto your couch or--heaven forbid--dad's bouncing knee. They're that good.

I won't be buying any Huggies products after seeing this campaign. If you'd like to tell Huggies what you think about it, you can head over to their Facebook wall or tweet them at @Huggies.

Update: I wrote a follow-up post and encourage people to sign this Change.org petition

3 comments:

  1. Thank you for this! I saw this commercial tonight for the first time and I was extremely upset. I have been a stay-home dad for quite a while and have always done so much to learn from, grow with, and take care of my four children. Huggies really disappointed me with this one!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Well, then, my husband must be a damn unicorn. He not only doesn't watch anything that qualifies as a "big game," but he is fully present and involved with our child(ren), including changing diapers every day since our 3-year old was born.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm glad I wasn't the only one horrified by this commercial.

    ReplyDelete