• by P.J. Bednarski  @pjbtweet, April 3, 2019

Pampers and Serena Williams are standing up for babies who just don’t like to sit still.

Pampers is now marketing Cruisers 360 Fit diapers, which feature a stretch waistband and a no-tapes design specifically to cater to babies who always seem to be on the go, go, go.

The tennis star is mom to 1 1/2 -year-old Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr. Some disdainful onlookers sometimes refer to tykes like that as a “wild child.”

Serena Williams won’t have it.

“My daughter Olympia has always been very active -- she skipped crawling and went straight to walking, and I’ve been trying to keep up with her ever since,” Williams says. “Sometimes when we’re in public she will be running around, climbing over things, and I’ve definitely heard her being called 'wild' in a negative way. But in my opinion being a wild child is a good thing -- it means she’s spirited, and curious, and active.”

The Procter & Gamble disposable diaper also comes on and off in a hurry, so there’s not a lot of diaper-changing downtime between adventures. The design, in fact, prompts Pampers to compare them to yoga pants for ease-of-wear.

Serena and Olympia appear in a new video for Pampers that popped up today.

Pampers is also trying to change perceptions about very active babies. In introducing the new product, it trotted out a passel of statistics, including this one:  Nearly 75% of parents believe that society perceives a “wild child” as a bad thing, and 60% have felt the need to apologize for their children when they’ve been very active in public.

Still, in Wakefield Research for Pampers querying 1,000 parents of kids 6-months to 24-months-old, 84% wish they could let their kids do their thing without being judged, and 97% think the babies learn from all of that activity.  

The world’s dominant disposable diaper brand is on board. “Pampers believes every child was born to be wild. We want to help parents embrace and celebrate their curious, active babies’ wild moves without hesitation -- and we couldn’t think of a more perfect parent to help us on this mission than Serena Williams,” said Andre Schulten, P&G’s vice president and general manager, baby care North America.