Dive Brief:
- Procter & Gamble brand Pampers teamed with Grammy Award winner John Legend to celebrate dads' roles in everyday routines, including changing diapers, per a news release.
- The campaign, arriving ahead of Father's Day, includes a video where Legend sings "Stinky Booty," an original song to he came up with for his daughter Luna when changing her diaper. The spot includes other dads singing parts of the song while changing their babies' diapers.
- Pampers is encouraging consumers to share their own "diaper duty stories" on its social media channels with the hashtag #StinkyBootyDuty. In March, Legend's wife Chrissy Teigen joined the brand as a creative consultant for Pampers Pure, a new collection of diapers made with natural and other "thoughtfully selected" materials.
Dive Insight:
Pampers joins a growing list of brands that are attempting to portray fathers in more sensitive, caregiving roles as consumers increasingly react negatively to the "doofus" dad stereotype. By showing Legend and other dads changing diapers, Pampers is attempting to move away from outdated tropes that suggest such tasks fall squarely on mothers, and also break with depicting dads as hapless. This approach could be appealing to younger parents, as 74% of millennial fathers think advertisers are out of touch with modern family dynamics, and 85% say they know more than they get credit for, according to a survey by Saatchi & Saatchi NY.
P&G rival Unilever is attempting a similar strategy this Father's Day with a Dove Men+Care campaign raising awareness about paid paternity leave. The effort includes short films, where a diverse cast of dads offer parenting advice, along with a digital content hub and contributions to crowd-funding campaigns around the issue.
Partnering with Legend is a natural extension of Pampers' work with Teigen, and a bid by the brand to capture the two stars' massive social media audience. The couple collectively has more than 25 million Instagram followers, and are well-known for posting parenting moments, which often garner strong engagement. Teigen's Instagram post about the "Stinky Booty" launch video has racked up more than 3 million views and thousands of comments at press time.
Pampers is also aiming to deepen its connection with parents by encouraging them to share their own diaper duty stories on social. The brand embraced a similar approach for a recent #SleptLikeThis campaign featuring brand ambassadors Vanessa and Nick Lachey. The effort included an online quiz for parents to discover their baby's "sleep personality" to share online for the chance to win prizes.