Have Dad's Put Huggies To The Test

Introduction
When you imagine diapers and people taking care of babies, what do you think? I think of a young woman in her early thirty’s changing her son or daughter’s dirty diapers. This stereotype is so common within our society, as woman are depicted as caregivers and men are looked to as the “bread winners” for families. Huggies, a diaper and baby product company, tried to alter this stereotype in an another way but failed miserably. They’re pitch was “Have Dad’s Put Huggies to The Test,” which socially complicated a lot of things with their advertisement. The ad shows a middle aged man, who is shown to most likely be a business man.
The man is wearing a shirt and tie, with sleeves rolled up and tie loose on his neck. This alleged man is also holding a bag containing baby products, like a teddy bear and milk. This displays that the father is on the rush and just got back from a long day at work and now is “having” to care of his child. This ad is showing that the father is choosing his job over his child, displaying that he is a bad parent. As the commercial hit the media, Dad’s around the nation felt very insulted. If you’re a Dad, you’re not looked at as a caregiver to a family due to the lack of emotional support that woman
possess. Huggies made a controversial decision by broadcasting this, as they were going contrary to the societal norms, but in a negative way. This ad stood out to maybe challenge men to be more present towards taking care of their children. These ideas are well represented throughout the whole analysis.
Target Audience Usually, when you are presented with an ad about diapers and babies you see woman. In this ad, women may still be the primary target audience. Stereotypically, men aren’t the best of parents. This is a sensitive topic as a lot of young kids around the world don’t have a good father figure in their lives. Women are then challenged in raising a family by themselves and this complicates the idea of a father in our country. This ad could most definitely be coming towards woman, with Huggies telling men to “step up” and to take care of their children. Men are definitely the main audience being targeted very heavily. This ad seems to be concerning towards male parents, as it is somewhat insulting to a point. Traditionally, all over the media and since the dawn of time, women are stereotypically looked to as a care-giver to their children and men work to make money and feed the family.
Huggies attempted to shine the light towards men in the ad and to challenge the male stereotype.
However, the stereotype isn’t completely false and Huggies could have been trying to expose the dads that aren’t completely there for their children. All of these things being explained, it can be inferred that Huggies is directing its ad towards fathers across the country to step up and be a better parent. With this company’s decision to incorporate a middle aged man in its efforts to promote their baby products, they created a completely new campaign towards men rather than the basic idea of a woman in their advertisements. The colors of this ad are truly the normal basic male colors and which is meant for one group of
audience.
Color
Our society has stereotypes for everything, as people are labeled in every type of way. Boys are represented and dressed in blue, where girls are normally associated with the color pink. As infants, that’s the colors babies wear if they’re gender isn’t easily detected yet. This ad clearly shows the man wearing a blue dress shirt and a blue tie with an all blue background. These colors are on the advertisement for a reason and would’ve probably been pink if a woman was displayed. This man is dressed in these colors because it’s the typical color for a man to wear. The baby in the ad also has bright blue eyes, possibly showing that the baby is a boy. Not only is Huggies following the “gender standards” of color but is also trying to possibly attract the male audience with the color scheme of this advertisement. This is cultural phenomenon of depicting the gender of a child based on colors goes deeper than that. When I was a little kid, my favorite color was blue and being grown up all around that color it definitely makes a lot of sense. The colors pink and blue also show depict the type of person you are. Stereotypically, if you’re a man and wear pink you’re not manly and have feminine traits and vice versa with the color blue for women. The color blue is shown to be manly and a masculine color and depicts men in that way. The colors of what people wear and like shouldn’t depict how manly or feminine you are. Our society uses these colors to determine the type of person you are. This also correlates to other activities and stereotypes. Things such as colors, your athletic ability, hobbies and other activities should not a gender type label.

Text and Images
There is one big image being displayed in this advertisement. The text and image depict a lot of ideas against men. Obviously, the man dressed in business type clothing and holding a baby is the main one. Without the outfit that he’s wearing this ad would come off in a completely different way to the target audience. This ad is displaying that the man took care of the child and with the smirk on his face, showing that he got the job done. Huggies is implying that it was the father who changed the diaper, something that is not commonly associated with men. On the bottom of the ad, it’s attempting to convince the audience that their wipes are the best out there. In the next sentence, they say “But if you want real proof, put it to the ultimate test… Dad.”
This picture alone stirs up a lot of debate, already getting discontinued almost immediately after being shown on the internet. According to William O’Barr, “When men are depicted in paternal roles, they often appear as adult playmates, usually in sports or other outdoor contexts.” The big majority of the labels connected with the male gender don’t normally show men with changing diapers but with watching sports after work or letting the mother take care of the child. With these images being displayed, it comes off that Huggies is saying that men are bad parents. There is abundant amount of great male parents across the world and this stereotype must really hit home to those men. My dad as an example, has been the been the greatest role model and has done everything he could to help make sure I had a great childhood and now make it to college.

Conclusion Huggies came into this marketing campaign with a very unique approach. Women being the typical cover stars for types of advertisements like these, they’re replaced with fathers who are shown to not be qualified enough. We live in a society where everyone is having some label stamped on them once they’re born. No matter what skin color, background you have, your gender, or whatever interests you have you will always be stereotyped and advertisements like these are prime examples. People should only be analyzed from who they are and not from whatever the basic male or female acts and that would be a step in the right direction in treating people right in our country.