Huggies is in hot water over a series of ads depicting fathers as hapless caregivers.
After the ad aired, which showed several men who were too distracted by a sports game to care for their children, several dads took to Facebook to voice their complaints.
One father wrote:
“Your ad campaign disgusts me. My wife and I share the responsibilities of the house. I cook, grocery shop, clean, and we take care of our daughter equally. At times I have been at home with my daughter more than my wife has been, after she had to return to work and I had a lot of time off. It is insulting to all fathers to portray us as a bunch of bumbling idiots.”
One mother wrote:
“My husband was the stay at home dad when I was working. I am sick of big name companies trying to belittle dads and make them seem incompetent when it comes to their children. We (woman) may have been the ones to carry and birth our children but that does not make us the better parent. It is time that society recognizes dad as a parent too…not just some guy that sits around all day watching sports.”
Joey Mooring, a spokesperson for Huggies, said that the ad wasn’t meant to insult fathers but that the company understood where the dads were coming from. Huggies has changed the “dad test” campaign to better represent stay-at-home fathers.
Mooring said:
“The intention was not to pick fun at dads, but only feature real dads, with their own babies in real life situations putting our Huggies diapers and baby wipes to the test. We have learned that our intended message did not come through and we have made changes.”
Here’s the new Huggie ad.
Here’s a look at the original ad.
Do you think the Huggies “Dad Test” ad was offensive?
