Company tries to use social media trying to sell lots of diapers while making fun of dads; dads use social media to shut down the advertisement. Game over!
http://digitaljournal.com/article/321251
http://www.change.org/petitions/we-re-dads-huggies-not-dummies
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lisa-belkin/huggies-pulls-diaper-ads_b_1339074.html
Huggies recently launched a new campaign called “Have Dad Put Huggies To The Test” that urged parents to put the company’s brand of diapers to the “Dad test.” According to the Baltimore Sun, a “television commercial that made dads look like dummies” ticked off many fathers with a stereotype that showed fathers as inept caretakers of their children. The commercial showed five moms handing off the kids to dads for five days while they went out. The ads highlighted dads as appearing to be incompetent in taking care of the kids and ignoring changing their diapers in favor of other activities, such as watching sports, while the moms were absent.
A marketing campaign backfires While Huggies intention was to “celebrate fatherhood”, many fathers weren’t feeling very festive after seeing the commercial. In fact, several were angered when they saw Huggies new ad campaign. Enough dads felt strongly enough about the issue, they decided to take the concern to where else? Social media.
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Taking to his blog, Daddy Doctrines, Routly criticized Huggies commercials. “Another commercial even touts the ability of HUGGIES to remain leak-free when dad is too busy watching televised sports to change a soiled diaper until after the game,” Routly wrote. “Is that what HUGGIES thinks dads do? We leave our children in overflowing diapers because sports is more important to us? Really?” Routly set up an online petition on his blog “We’re Dads, Huggies. Not Dummies”, and it got enough attention that Change.orgreportedly contacted him to see if he was willing to let the website post his petition. Suddenly the issue took notice across social media, including Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. The petition received over 1,300 signatures in a short period of time.