Huggies put its diapers to the 'Dad Test' — dads were the punchline, and the ads fell

In early 2012 Huggies, the Kimberly-Clark diaper brand, launched 'The Dad Test' on its Facebook page: a series of videos built on the premise that Huggies diapers and wipes were tough enough to survive even the most clueless babysitters — fathers. The ads showed fathers as incompetent caregivers ignoring their babies, a durability claim dressed up as a sitcom joke.

Fathers and mothers protested on the page and across the web, arguing that plenty of dads share childcare in full. Stay-at-home dad Chris Routly started an online petition — 'We're dads, Huggies. Not dummies.' — that gathered more than 1,300 signatures, and fatherhood bloggers tore into a campaign that mocked its own customers. Within days Huggies pulled the ads from its Facebook page.

The brand said it never meant to poke fun at dads — the intention was 'only to feature real dads, with their own babies in real-life situations' — and rebuilt the campaign; the replacement videos showed fathers rocking happy babies in their laps. A premise that had survived decades of sitcom dads did not survive one week of its own audience replying underneath the ad.