New Huggies Commercial - Dad Campaign
The men in this video have taken on the role of "fatherhood." After watching this advertisement do you feel that the message is making fun of their masculinity by depicting them as the "nurturer?" Pay close attention to the details and side notes mentioned. Who do you think this audience is geared toward?
Things to consider: Attitudes, Ethnicity, Interaction
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIdRq-AxeU0
This commercial reminds me of the “Doofy Husbands: Target Women”. The director of this commercial uses the role of “Dad” to show that their products are handy, convenient, and durable. The commercial also reflects the difference of the social roles between husband and wife; the wife is always domestic, while the husband is less capable of taking care of children. Moreover, the line “Not all dads are imbeciles” tells its audiences that New Huggies is a good choice for the people unfamiliar with taking care of children.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the sentiment that "Not all dads are imbeciles" quote markets Huggies as a choice for those who do not know how to take care of small children. The other glaring detail about the dads featured in the commercial is that they are all Caucasian- no Asian, African-American, or any other ethnicity. Huggies may not realize this, but the public notices these sort of omissions in media and will inherently assume that the company is not marketed in a diverse manner.
DeleteI agree with both of you. This video is directed to dads who are "clueless" about parenting which is very stereotypical. The stereotype of dads is that they work all day and come home and don't help with the kids while their wife takes care of the kids and cook dinner. This commercial is saying that most dads don't know how to take care of their own kids without the help of their wife, unless the dad chooses Huggies for their baby which makes them know everything about parenting.
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DeleteCoinciding with the previous comments, I also agree with the stereotypical role of the father, usually involved only outside of home, in the society. Huggies is utilizing the quote "Not all men are imbecile" to convince the audience that dads can be involved in house chores - such as taking care of children. The advertisement targets men who can easily adjust to the "parenting life" without the help of their wives.
DeleteThey advertise making their diapers ready for the dad test. This is just calling men out for not being able to handle kids. How is this even a real test that huggies can run? Huggies are trying to say they even if man/ dad is watching the baby it will be ok since the baby is wearing a huggies diaper. At no point in the commercial do they talk about how their diaper is better or good for babies. The only thing that is focused on is how men are watching the babies and how they fall asleep in the dad's arms. Finally at the bottom of the screen for the entire commercial it reads, "Not all men are imbeciles". Are huggies trying to say that all men and dumb and cant handle children. What's wrong with stay at home dad's? I'm not sure who this would be geared toward, was this advertisement on tv?
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with you that this commercial significantly lacks actual information on the diapers and what they are claiming about them. I think it is interesting that they don’t talk about the diaper itself, but use this “dad test” to try and sell the product. I agree that Huggies is clearly depicting men as “imbeciles” who can’t handle children because of the way they almost sarcastically portray them. I agree too that this is clearly putting down stay at home dads and not even acknowledging them at all. It makes me wonder if they were specifically targeting women and mothers or just simply using humor to make their diapers seem more desirable.
DeleteI agree with both Aaron and Katie. About who the target audience is, I agree that it is a little ambiguous. But I would say that the target audience is both women/mothers and men/fathers. Women would see the commercial and think about how this product would perfectly suit their husbands who are "not familiar" with caring for children. Men would see the commercial and, in attempt to not be imbeciles, may buy the product to make up for their unfamiliarity with children. Despite this, the commercial seems to show fathers in a really negative light. Because of this, i would expect many "non-imbecile" fathers and stay-home fathers to be outraged. This is exactly what happened, and Huggies was forced to replace the commercial with a more "appropriate" one (as explained in the description of the video).
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ReplyDeleteIn this video it seems that they are trying to sell to commercial to both mothers and fathers. The product makes the women think that if they buy this brand of diapers that their man will be able to take care of their baby and be able to make them fall asleep with no problem. From the male perspective men would see this brand and think that it would help not make them look so helpless when it comes to taking care of their child. The commercial is stating that mostly all men are imbeciles, but if they use the new huggies diapers they would not be considered this anymore.
I would agree about the commercial targeting both men and women. The insult to dads is obviously intended to try to convince men to be like the dads depicted in the commercial who are shown as loving and affectionate. It targets women by emphasizing the quality of the product. What I find interesting is that if you were to watch the commercial without the subtitle text it would seem to be showing dads in a positive way, as loving and affectionate caregivers. Therefore I don't understand the reasoning behind the text at all. I think it would be much better marketing and a much more successful commercial if the text was not there. The main point Billy made which I agree with is that the commercial is designed to sell the product to both men and women. This is something which almost all of the commercials for a product have done and in that way it is a good marketing strategy, but the text is certainly not a good idea, and the commercial was wisely pulled for that reason.
DeleteI agree with Billy that the commercial, as poorly produced as it is, is aimed at both fathers and mothers. Do you think the commercial would be more effective though if it showed mothers using the diapers? Just like race diversity in the video, women are also excluded and I think this negates the point that mother's use the brand. As for the subtitle, any comment that uses a strong word such as "imbecile" is bound to offend some of the audience. This was not a effective selling point but I still think father's would see the benefit of buying the product.
DeleteAt the beginning of the video they state that they are putting their product through the ultimate test. Are they trying to say that dads our unable to properly care for their children? The dads in this video are clearly enjoying being with the babies. They show a side of themselves of being caring and nurturing. The dads are clearly proud of themselves that they were able to get the babies feed and to sleep. When the dad takes and shows the diaper and it has no signs of being wet the two dads do the fist bump you would have thought they won a football game. I can see dad after watching this video say wow; I need to get these diapers it will make it easier for me. Would his thinking be my baby will content and so will I.
ReplyDeleteI would agree with Juanita on the commercial downplaying a man’s ability to cater to a baby by titling the experiment as the ultimate test. The commercial throws the title quickly followed by describing all the factors that go into making this the ultimate test. They linger on the word “Dads” and are quick to fly through the warm milk induced sleep. Following the intro to the test, the camera spans across a group of fathers all sitting on lazy-boy styled recliners. I think they just wanted to complete the dad persona by having him sit in the father chair. As Juanita pointed out the fist bump at the end fully captured the dad. It was interesting to see what huggies wanted to capture as a potentially new inexperienced father.
DeleteIn this commercial, I feel like the makers of Huggies attack the male population saying they are putting their product through the ultimate test. This is implying that dads are not capabable of providing a safe and caring enviroment for their child. However, even though the company pokes at the generic stereotype, they do portay a different scene in the commercial. The dads are all sitting together and spending quality time with their children and seeming to be having no trouble with them. Even with the movement of the stay at home dad, this commercial still discriminates the whole dad population as a whole. Why does the company want to portray the dad population in such a bad light? The company is obviously just trying to sell their product, so after all the hype up of how bad dads are, the company is showing how "easy" their diapers make naptime, making dads want to take the easy way out of the situation. Really, the commercial is just employing another stereotype of dads being lazy with their children and trying to find the easy way out of things.
ReplyDeleteYeah，this commercial just simply take advantage of the stereotype that men do not want to invest their energy in babies. Huggies commercial implicitly saying men only need to do two things which are feed the baby and make sure their babies are wearing Huggies. No more! Yeah it seems simplified baby care and makes it is so easy to do with Huggies. It could be somewhat offensive to men, but to be honest, it might be true at least in my case. I really do not hope to invest lots energy in baby caring (if I have one). I might argue the word imbecile, the word seems discrimination to me.
DeleteIt's interesting that they casted men for this part. there's the obvious reason why, and that is to be inclusive. Fathers are supposed to help with the children in this day and age. It's just a new era where the father isn't supposed to just come home from work and read or watch TV while the mother solely takes care of the children, cooks, and does the chores around the house anymore, there is an equal load that lessens the image of men taking care of babies as odd in modern culture. I bring up the statement that it was not odd but rather interesting to see men casted because they might have a more pronounced reaction if the dippers and in turn disrupt the peace of all the sleeping babies.
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