Pampers: Now More Macho Than Imaginable

Posted on 22. Jun, 2010 by rebel in advertising, celebs, diapers, gender equity

I have wasted a truly shameful amount of my life over the last 4 years poking fun at Pampers, which — despite billions in sales and a mammoth advertising budget — consistently produces commercials and marketing that is solely and explicitly aimed at moms.

But this weekend, that started to change. Unbeknown to me, back in February, Pampers signed up the one athlete in the United States who a) a household name, b) atop his chosen profession and c) is untainted by any sex scandals: Drew Brees. I have no idea what it costs to get Drew Brees as a spokesman, but I assume, given a), b) and, especially, c), that Pampers is opening up the wallet. This thrills me to no end. Despite having Brees locked up since February, Pamper didn’t unleash him until this weekend, when he did a media blitz and threw out the first pitch at Yankee stadium. (There was apparently an ad during the winter, but I never saw it.)

Brees is a hell of a diaper pitchman: he has one in diapers and one on the way, so he knows what he’s talking about. And if you can believe what he’s telling the press, Brees is the person doing most of the diaper duty in his house. I have no idea if this is true (I tend to assume that people who sign $60 million contracts can hire a person whose sole job is to change diapers), but it doesn’t matter. What matters is that Brees can say that he changes diapers, and he can be taken seriously saying that. I don’t want to undersell that point. Doing most of the diaper duty is now cool and the right thing to do for dads, according to the reigning Super Bowl MVP.

Pampers, in a press release, said that the era of the diaper-changing dad had already emerged:

Pampers recently commissioned a study in which dads said that they do their fair share of parenting dirty work when it comes to diaper changing. In fact, 80 percent of dads queried said that they either do most of the diaper changing in the house, or an equal share of it. The survey also revealed that 76 percent of dads said that they partake in parenting responsibilities, including diaper care, more than their own fathers did. Also, six (6) in 10 dads polled said that they should continue to change diapers on Father’s Day just to show what great fathers they are.

I have no idea what the methodology here is, but this is almost certainly wrong (again, go back and read Katherine Reynolds Lewis’ Slate piece), and probably wrong by a huge margin. 80 percent of guys doing at least half of the diapers sounds highly, highly implausible. But — again — the very fact that Procter & Gamble can push that stat out there and have people take it (semi) seriously is a sign of how far we’ve come. We may not be living in a golden age of diaper dudes, but it seems like a lot of people aspire to get there.

(Aside: last night, I saw a commercial for the very Pampers product that Brees is pitching. It was addressed directly to the viewer — “mom” — so the era of ungendered Pamper marketing is not yet here. I’m not bent out of shape. If P&G wants to go after different market segments, with some stuff aimed at dads and some at moms, God bless ‘em. Just don’t ignore us.)

(The whole line of thinking came from a tip from NYC Dad honcho Matt, who pointed me to this clip. It’s worth watching just to hear Brees talk about changing nappies. He doesn’t say “nappies,” of course. He’s an American. An American Dad. A Proud, Diaper-Changing, Touchdown-Throwing American Dad.)