Huggies flew me out to Chicago a few weeks ago to participate in its first-ever Huggies Parents Council meeting to discuss a viral video posted in August by a mom in California suggesting that she found glass shards in a package of Huggies wipes. Huggies responded to the claim quickly by sending the product for independent testing. Within a day, the independent testing firm, McCrone Associates Inc., said it found no glass or glass-like substances in the package of wipes featured in the video. They posted more about the testing and the “shimmering” that is seen in the video in an FAQ on the Huggies website. This all happened within days of the original video post.
As I indicated in my post before the trip, we have had a long working relationship with Huggies, so I wanted to hear what they had to say about the video and the products in question.
Why would Huggies bring parent bloggers from across the country together in first place? Of course, they hoped the 12 of us will go back to our respective sites and share the fact that no glass shards were found in the wipes.
So, here it is: NO GLASS SHARDS WERE FOUND IN HUGGIES WIPES.
While in Chicago, we learned the Huggies team takes safety very seriously. Each ingredient is formulated to be safe for a baby’s skin. Each process is quality checked. Each final product is tested in focus groups to make sure it is working for babies and parents. Everyone from chemists to engineers, product managers and even general managers of the overall Huggies brand stood in front of us to demonstrate (with props) their dedication to safety. Huggies made a big investment in time, energy and resources to diminish the ill will created by this controversy — as you would expect from a good consumer marketing company.
That said, I took away something more than all that. The Huggies employees put in front of us were more than automatons sticking to PR-driven talking points. These were people that cared deeply about the products they are sending to market. Many of these people had worked at Huggies for most, if not all, of their careers. The moment of the day I will never forget is when one of the chemists talked about the 450+ workers at the factory where Huggies factory in Maumelle, Ark. (Huggies products are made in the USA, and they are even expanding the factory). The chemist had a tear in his eye as he talked about factory workers getting on the Huggies Facebook page themselves responding to comments and defending their work. Call me sappy, but I left Chicago feeling proud to be associated with Huggies and the team that creates their products.
Thank you to the entire Huggies Team for including City Dads Group in your discussion. We hope to be back soon for less controversial reasons.
Disclosure: I was compensated for my time and travel expenses to participate in the Huggies Parents Council. As always, my thoughts and opinions are my own.
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