Huggies Sexes Up Baby Girls

Remember the Coppertone ad in which a doggie pulls down the blue swimsuit bottom of a cartoon girl about 3 years old, showing her coppertone tan? The picture was coy and cute, originally, but wouldn't fly in this very sexualized porn culture girls are currently growing up in. So take a look at the new Huggies "gold jeans" specialty ad for toddler girls. In it we see a "topless" baby in Huggies and ruffled apron serving at a miniature table. The words above her say, "Work it baby", a line commonly used by photographers to models asking them to pose sexily. South African journalist Lauren Beukes writes about it in her article, "Disturbingly Sexual." Slutty waitress baby, as Beukes refers to her, is clad in a pink apron with lace (invoking a french maid) and is looking over her shoulder as in a topless model pose. Those at Huggies denied to Beukes any sexual connotation. They say they were trying to portray a hard-working waitress. We doubt, however, that they didn’t get the sexy connotations and suggestive symbolism. Nevertheless, as Beukes writes, it's not one thing but the combination "in Waitress Baby that reads so horribly wrong: that pose + that pout + that dodgy tagline. “ We get sexual humor; we sometimes even like it; we might even say to one another "work it, baby" as a joke. But it's not funny when applied to children or babies. And the toplessness, pink apron, lace, and over the shoulder glance suggest something older imprinted on someone younger. In our world, in our time, this just isn't funny.