Huggies

Get them while they’re young, the old advertising adage goes. Well, it doesn’t get any younger than this.

Though we’re 99 percent sure that it’s their parents that Huggies is targeting with the above television commercial for its Little Snugglers diapers, newborns will have the ultimate say in how the diapers feel as they’ll be the ones wearing them. If you’ve ever met a newborn, you know they have no problem telling you when they’re uncomfortable, at the decibel level of their choosing. But to help alleviate any parental concerns over the quality of the diapers, Huggies tells new parents that “more hospitals than ever are choosing Huggies” and that Huggies “is the fastest growing brand in hospitals.”

Yet the National Advertising Division aka The National Advertising Division (NAD) is the advertising industry’s self-regulatory body administered by the Council of Better Business Bureaus. recently found that these statements are based on assumptions, not facts.

Specifically, NAD said, they are supported by Huggies’ position that increasing sales and shipping volume to acute care hospitals in recent years means that Pampers, which challenged the claims with NAD, must be slipping in market value. That’s not necessarily true, said NAD, adding that the “fastest growing brand” claim ignores the growth of smaller niche brands. It recommended that the claim be discontinued, a recommendation that Huggies said it would appeal.

Huggies did, however, agree to drop the other claim from its advertising, which NAD said conveys the unsupported message that more hospitals are choosing Huggies over Pampers. In fact, Pampers claims in its own television commercial that its diaper brand is the “#1 Choice of Hospitals.”

It’s a lot to sort out, even for an adult.

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