It’s been quite a week for baby/parenting brand
Frida.
Over the weekend, controversy exploded after “old ads and packaging resurfaced” with “perturbed parents claiming that the company crossed a line with sexual tones on
their products designed for infants – and some are even calling for a boycott,” per the New York Post.
A particular offender: a post for a rectal thermometer showing a
package with a baby’s bare bottom was allegedly captioned, “This is the closest your husband’s gonna get to a threesome.”
Frida, for its part, has always boasted about
the humorous nature of its marketing, including highlighting “the more scatological or snotty aspects of babies,” as MediaPostAgency Daily reported in a 2022 story about a campaign starring Amy Schumer.
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"From the very
beginning, Frida has used humor to talk about the real, raw, and messy parts of parenting that too often go unspoken,” the company reiterated to Newsweekthis week. "We’re never trying to offend, push
boundaries for shock value, or make anyone uncomfortable. Importantly, our tone is never separate from our product."
Coincidentally, the current backlash erupted as Frida was in the midst of a
taboo-shattering marketing stunt down in New Orleans.
Frida’s take: a Mardi Gras float sporting the phrases “Show us what your boobs can do” and “Boobs
deserve better than beads,” along with the float’s main feature: a bevy of huge Styrofoam-based “milk-feeding” breasts … in what Frida calls “all shapes and
sizes,” some of which depict colostrum and breastmilk coming out of them.
The float, parading through various Big Easy neighborhoods through Fat Tuesday on February 17 as seen in
this Instagram video, also includes a QR code linking to www.frida.com/boobs, a site which goes
the float one better by showing real “milk-feeding breasts” in photos, and inviting pregnant, breastfeeding and postpartum womento share their own self-images.
Text
accompanying the Instagram video spells out what Frida is attempting to achieve in this campaign.
“We live in a world that loves boobs. As long as they’re doing what society
wants them to do,” the post begins. “But the moment boobs start doing their actual job — feeding a baby, leaking through a shirt, existing unevenly, painfully, honestly —
everyone suddenly gets shy and uncomfortable.”
Such breasts “get flagged, blurred and deleted,” the post continues, “not because they’re inappropriate, but
because they’re real….Boobs aren’t the problem. Pretending they only exist for one reason (our entertainment) is. So come see the float. Take the pics. Clutch your beads if you need
to. Then join the party: SHOW US WHAT YOUR BOOBS CAN DO.”
Indeed, Frida claims that while “more than 80% of U.S. mothers start breastfeeding… images and discussions of
milk-making breasts are frequently flagged or removed—treated as sexual content instead of health education.”
And not just online. Back in 2020, Frida posted this video of a commercial for postpartum recovery products that ABC rejected for its Oscars broadcast.