Objectifying Children in Advertising

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Recommended: Media stereotypes of white men

One of the Huggies Diapers commercials recently seen on national television uses an unusual approach to convince the target market that Huggies are superior to all other diapers; these diapers are cutting-edge for their fashion and capacity to establish social dominance. The commercial implies in forty-three seconds that these diapers create exclusive and amazing living conditions for those fortunate children who wear them, particularly if the wearer is a male, white toddler. The marketing scheme utilizes the concepts of wealth and privilege as the requisites for determining not only diaper effectiveness but also present and perhaps future recognition, authority, social status, and success. The commercial suggests that children who wear these couture diapers are living in the lap of luxury: well-groomed and fashionably dressed, out on the town, acknowledged, capable, and secure, confident even with excrement in their pants. The absurd objective that these diapers claim to achieve does not offer credible evidence to diaper buyers to purchase these diapers for the purpose that diapers are intended.

Set to music reminiscent of a half-time show at a sports event, the commercial opens with a scene of two female Caucasian supermodel prototypes wearing dazzling jewelry, and stylish apparel and accessories, while conversing and dining alfresco. The women suddenly react with amazement to what now comes into view: a blond, blue-eyed, white male toddler. Swaggering down the expansive brick-paved sidewalk, he is dressed in a classic “preppie” outfit: button-down collar shirt and jeans. Only, his jeans are actually just a blue denim printed plastic disposable diaper, complete with facsimiles of back pockets. As the toddler struts, ...

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...the law.

Beyond the unrealistic opportunities that these diapers suggest will manifest, the presentation of an innocent and very young child as a chauvinistic, self-absorbed snob in the making is a crude and offensive strategy to sell diapers. To represent toddlers as obsessed with appearance, status, and power is an abysmal projection of an adult neurosis. If this commercial is designed to convince diaper buyers to buy these diapers, there is nothing in the content to inspire confidence in the brand. These diapers are not for toddlers;, they are made for wealthy, white, male supremacists .

Works Cited

Huggies Little Movers Jeans Diapers. YouTube. YouTube, 2011. Web. 11 Feb. 2012.

Lewis, David. “The Use of Color in Advertising.” N.p., 4 Dec. 2011. Web. 20 Feb. 2012.

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