• by P.J. Bednarski  @pjbtweet, February 19, 2020

Procter & Gamble’s Pampers diaper brand just launched a new #Share the Love campaign that aims to reassure new moms they’re doing fine raising their adoring and adorable little one.

 “As a mother myself, I know how easy it is to be critical of ourselves, especially in the early years,” says Fama Francisco, the CEO of P&G’s global baby care and feminine care businesses, in a statement. “And now that my children are grown and have communicated back to me how loved they’ve always felt, I realize how unhelpful my inner critic was.”

Instead, a new commercial points out that in the tiny eyes of their newborn children, Mom is an absolute wonder woman. “You are beautiful,” a child’s voiceover says. “You are smart. You are strong. You are kind. You are. . . perfect.” In between those words, we see moms struggling to keep all the stress of motherhood and working in balance, with the loving eyes of their baby looking on. 

“Imagine if we saw ourselves the way our babies saw us,” an on-screen graphic says near the end. 

Actress and new mom Shay Mitchell helped host a streamed Instagram chat on Wednesday with new moms, along with TV personality Chrissy Teigen, who  is also a Pampers “creative consultant” used on previous projects. 

Pampers says its new research finds that nine out of 10 moms worry they’re not doing a good enough job of mothering.  Another survey finds that 86% of moms claim to be their own worst critic.

“Am I being a good mother?” seems like a very universal question. This newest Pampers ad, of course, avoid another anxious question some moms ask about whether to use disposable diapers in the first place.

Though by now it wouldn’t seem to be such an issue -- Pampers has been around since 1961 -- new mom websites and forums still kick around the cloth versus disposable argument. The use of cloth diapers is now on the upswing, though still a sliver of the baby market. 

And in an era of heightened interest in the environment, disposables are an easy, smelly target. The Mother Jones website says disposable diapers discarded early in this century will finally finish biodegrading in the year 2500. On the other hand, cloth diapers use lots of water and detergent -- and the cotton they come from is also environmentally expensive to produce.