NYT Goes After Pampers on the Dad Thing
Posted on 23. Jun, 2010 by Brian Reid in advertising, diapers, gender equity, stats
There is a wonderful article in today’s New York Times about Pampers newfound (i.e. in the last week) obsession with fathers. It’s a must-read if you’ve been following my sometimes-frustrated, sometimes-whimsical battle against Pampers.
In the interest of full disclosure, I get quoted at the end of the piece, but that’s not what gets me excited. Here are the nuggets worth noting:
- Remember that survey from Pampers that I noted yesterday? Turns out that while 80 percent of the dads said they pulled at least their fair share, moms saw it differently, with fewer than 1 in 3 dads splitting diaper duty 50/50 and a mere 1 in 25 doing a majority of the diapers. Funny, I don’t remember that stat in the press release. (Incidentally, I think even a third of dads doing half of the diapering is probably good, and almost certainly progress. But the gulf between the perception of dads and the perception of moms probably makes it easier for companies to just say “to heck with it” and keep their eyes on mothers alone.)
- Their media event to launch the whole Drew Brees thing included materials that said, literally, “For mom:” and used female pronouns all over the place.
- Greg Allen of daddytypes.com (far and away my favorite blogging father) is quoted delivering a nice stake in the heart to all marketers who think that they can honor fathers one day a year and ignore then the other 364: “In June, everybody talks to dads, and baby marketing is filled with how dads are unsung heroes, but the rest of year it’s just moms. All of the packaging and ad copy is all babies and moms — and their regular day-in, day-out marketing and communications is all targeted at moms.”
Does this mean that the recent love from Pamper is a mirage, a PR ploy intended to fill us all with warm feelings about dad on Father’s Day? Hard to say. As I mentioned yesterday, getting Drew Brees’ time doesn’t come cheap, so I’m hoping this means that they’re serious. But I have to admit that I’m not holding my breath. Father’s Day doesn’t roll around for another 12 months. That’s plenty of time to recede into the background again.
rebelmom
23. Jun, 2010
Go Rebeldad! An agent for social change….
Lance Somerfeld
23. Jun, 2010
Brian,
Saw the article this morning over breakfast & brought a smile to my face. Amazing, that your uphill battle of 4+ years with the Pampers brand is finally starting to turn the corner. Keep up the great work!
BloggerFather
23. Jun, 2010
Man, could have been nice if they added a link to your blog, though…
Still, it’s good to hear your work is getting results. I don’t believe a word Pampers say, but even pretending to care is better than nothing, because it pushes other companies to do the same.
buzz
23. Jun, 2010
Exactly what I talked about when I first raised the issue in March with a post “Dads Change Diapers Too!” at DadCAMP.
http://www.dad-camp.com/2010/03/dads-change-diapers-too/
The term is parents. With an ‘s.’ As in plural.
Dads are parents too.
Jennifer Margulis
25. Jun, 2010
It was nice to see you quoted in that article.
There are so many OTHER reasons to hate Pampers, not just that they are sexist.
I wonder if you’d be open to talking about the diaper issue? I wrote a 5,000 word article in this month’s Mothering magazine (sorry that’s what it’s called. In all my books I include DADS AND MOMS and say PARENTS) about diapers. There are so many reasons NOT to use Pampers on our children’s private parts…
Keep up the good work empowering dads!
Lynn Schommer
25. Jun, 2010
When I was born in 1945 my dad took some days off of work. This was unusual for that time. I know for sure that he changed diapers (and they were “real”, not pampers). I am so sad to see that in 2010, there is still controversy about who can parent and who changes diapers!! I have two sons who parent their children. They are not “babysitting”. They are not “helping” their wives. They are parenting. And they’re good at it. Why are so many other people so dense?
MartiniDad
29. Jun, 2010
Way to go for bringing this up. This was my first father’s day as a dad and I was surprised by:
a) the number of stuff about dads in the various papers/media that I never noticed before and
b) how nice my family was to me.
Weird.
In any case, I’ve been wildly annoyed by the mom-centric marketing as well. Moved me to post on it with a link back to you…thanks for the effort.
http://makedadamartini.blogspot.com/2010/06/dear-pampers-i-am-dude.html
beth
29. Jun, 2010
HI Brian - Full disclosure: I work for Pampers PR agency here in the US. Just wanted to drop you a line to thank you for your posts. Having been lucky enough to draw Drew Brees duty on Father’s Day (and giving my own husband a thrill and a half by introducing him to Drew), I can tell you that both Drew and Pampers are the real deal. Yes, he changes diapers! Yes, his adorable (and active) baby Baylen is a Pampers Cruisers baby. And yes, Pampers absolutely recognizes the very vital role dads play in family life (that’s because most of us are either diaper changing dads or married to one - my own hubby certainly pulled his weight with our 2 girls!). I understand that we haven’t always been perfect, but IMHO, you don’t have to be perfect, you just have to recognize where you can get better and do your best to get there. Thank you for recognizing our work on this front! I can assure you it won’t be limited to Father’s Day. Drop me a line if you ever have any questions or want to share feedback! Beth
BloggerFather
29. Jun, 2010
MartiniDad, that was funny. And it’s great that even though they come out twice on this blog and a twice on my blog to tell people how dads are important to them, they end up telling you you’re pregnant. Actions speak louder and all that.