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Judge Rules Huggies Ads Can Stay on the Air

From Apryl Duncan, About.com GuideOctober 5, 2007

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Huggies can continue its "Brick Baby" campaign for now. A federal judge has denied a motion from competitor Pampers to have the ads pulled from the airwaves over false advertising claims. Kimberly Clark Corporation's Huggies brand launched the "Brick Baby" campaign for TV and in print. The ads say "other diapers" work if you have a brick baby but Huggies has an hourglass shape "for babies of the human variety."

Procter and Gamble, maker of Pampers and Luvs, says the ads make false claims that its diapers are rectangular instead of an hourglass shape. In P&G's lawsuit, the company states that almost all diapers have had an hourglass shape for the past 20 years.

More on the Ad Campaign's Lawsuit:

P&G is seeking all of the profits from Kimberly Clark Corporation's "Brick Baby" campaign, damages times three, legal fees plus expenses to fix the damage from the campaign. P&G believes a decision made by the National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus five months ago will help back its claims that the Huggies campaign is deceptive. The council investigated and told Kimberly Clark Corp. to change its advertising message.

WPP Group's JWT, New York, created the ad campaign for Huggies. The campaign doesn't directly cite the Pampers brand in its commercials but the diaper market is very competitive and it's a close race. P&G controls 43 percent of the diaper market and Kimberly Clark Corp. is in a close second with 41 percent.
Comments
April 14, 2008 at 1:16 pm
(1) A Grandma :

Since ALL diapers companies that advertise on TV talk about the shape, absorbency, etc., of their diapers, I just figured that commercial was talking about generic diapers. I’m disappointed to see P & G making a big deal of this.

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