When He Poops, It’s In Designer Colors

Comes now a report from the ad world: The new Huggies are here, printed to look like sexy, sexy denim jeans, and the sexy, sexy ad for these is offending some with its sexy sexiness.

What I want to know has nothing to do with the ad: What poor shmuck thinks this product was a good idea, a necessary idea, or an idea worth defending? It’s a disposable diaper. It’s going to be covered in feces shortly.  But never mind that its decor is irrelevant, and that once it’s been pooed upon it won’t look so hot. Never mind also that they’re usually contained in his pants, and invisible. What I want to know is: Shouldn’t every parent be demanding dye-free diapers, given that they go next to your baby’s skin all day? Listen, I’m not some earthy-crunchy guy. I’m all for plastics instead of glass, say, when there’s a good reason–breakage safety, throwability, whatever. But this stuff does nothing except get into the wastewater. I don’t get it. Someone, fill me in, in short one-syllable words so I can get it clearly?

Published by Christopher

Christopher Bonanos is a senior editor at New York magazine, where he works on arts and urban-affairs coverage (and a few other things). He and his wife live smack in the middle of midtown Manhattan, where their son was born in March 2009. Both parents are very happy, and very tired.

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7 Comments

  1. Oh, I just can’t get over the closing of that article:

    “It is significantly easier to have your kid run around in just a diaper, but you do feel a little bit like you’re neglecting the kid,”… “There’s always one mom in the play group who is in the know and an early adopter of cool things,” Ms. Drexler says. “The first who has these in the play group, wins.”

    It’s high-end parents meets marketers. Still won’t change the fact that most non-parents (and many parents) will be apalled by the lack of normal outer clothing protecting the child. That’s what clothes are traditionally for, right, protection?

  2. You make too much sense and you think to sensibly.

    That new diaper is meant for parents who think their kids are a fashionable reflection on themselves. Parents who want their kid to grow up being the trendy cool kid are the ones who are going to buy these.

    It is nuts, but it will sell. It won’t sell to us practical people with common sense, but there will be a lot of wannabe cool parents who buy them.

  3. The thing is, actually cool parents — at least as far as I’ve run across them — are the ones who are the most (possibly calculatedly) laid back about what their kids are wearing. Putting this diaper on your kid means you not only think about what your kid is wearing, you want other people to know that. Which is the opposite of laid back.

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