• by Les Luchter , April 1, 2025

Oil and gas drilling companies have had to protect against uncontained blowouts for years. Now, says Kimberly-Clark’s Huggies brand, parents of babies can do the same.

Baby “blowouts,” Huggies claims, can send poop traveling at up to seven feet per second.

On April 3, the brand will break a TV campaign emphasizing that its Little Snugglers diapers now have “blowout protection in every direction.” 

In a :30 spot from Leo Chicago, a baby is shown in a house where everything is covered with clear plastic, including poncho-wearing parents and pet cat. A graphic identifies this situation as depicting “blowout protection with ordinary diapers.” The screen then changes to the same scene with no coverings in sight as the line changes to “blowout protection with Huggies.” 

The spot, which also comes in :15 and :06 versions in English and Spanish, will run through year’s end on local TV, connected TV (CTV), online TV and more, Matt Barresi, Huggies vice president, North America, tells Marketing Daily.  Spark Foundry handled the media buying.

The “new and improved” Little Snugglers now include both front and back “blowout blockers” plus “soft and crunch leg cuffs to help contain mess” he explains.

The campaign is 25% bigger than last year’s brand effort, Barresi says, veering from previous messaging “focused on gentle protection for young babies…We felt we could break out of the sea-of-sameness that’s enveloped the diaper category and tell this powerful story in a more fun and memorable way.”

Other campaign content, he says, includes the use of “unique content creators” in social, CTV, YouTube, podcasts, retail media, etc.”

While the TV spots launch Thursday, the campaign itself launched Monday with a “Poop Poncho” sweepstakes previewing the ponchos shown in the commercials. And it’s no April Fool’s joke.

Running through Friday, the sweepstakes offers 200 winners a one-size-fits-all poncho with the words “Wish I Had Huggies” emblazoned on the back. “You could say the ponchos are a fun way to dramatize the real-world impact of an uncontained blowout,” says Barresi.

PoopPoncho has its own website (PoopPoncho.com) and is being promoted through Huggies’ social media pages. The ponchos are valued at $10 each.