• by Les Luchter , April 23, 2025

Less than a month since launching a funny campaign focused on poop blowouts for its “new and improved” Little Snugglers premium-priced diapers, Kimberly-Clark’s Huggies brand has launched a funny campaign starring “tough guy” actor Danny Trejo for its “new and improved” budget-priced Snug & Dry diapers.

How improved? The addition of “CloudSoft” absorbent layers and a soft waistband has resulted in rave reviews since the updated product’s debut in February, CEO Mike Hsu boasted on Tuesday. Referring repeatedly to Snug & Dry during Kimberly-Clark’s Q1 earnings call, Hsu called it an example of how the company has been innovating “to deliver better products at lower cost” in order to meet “the burden that middle-income to lower-income households are dealing with.”  

On a pre-recorded management discussion, Hsu also said that the new Snug & Dry marked “the shortest time to launch a new product in our U.S .business.”

The product reviews, Hsu noted, compare Snug & Dry favorably to higher-tier diapers like Little Snuggler “even though it's targeted against the mainstream value shopper.” And that’s okay with him, he said, suggesting that if Snug & Dry is performing as well as the premium diapers, the latter product teams “can figure out how to beat that.”

With Kimberly-Clark anticipating “more value-oriented volume,” Hsu said that brand promotion is largely designed to drive trial so that consumers can “touch and feel” the product.

Enter the new campaign, in which Danny Trejo turns from tough guy to nice guy just by touching a diaper.

Launched on April 1, it’s the first major campaign in Snug & Dry’s 47-year history, following some digital media advertising last year.

Trejo is tough at the beginning of this :30 spot -- set at a child’s party--– as he rips a piñata in half and then squeezes fresh juice from an orange into a glass with his bare hands. But then, he goes to retrieve a Snug & Dry diaper and suddenly imagines he’s snuggling with sheep. The ad is also running in a :15 version, with the campaign including retail, social and other media as well.

Leo Chicago and Spark Foundry, also involved with the Little Snugglers campaign, serve respectively as creative agency and media agency.

The spots will run for about a year, the brand tells Marketing Daily.

The media buy includes linear TV (e.g, NBC, ABC, Univision, Telemundo, Disney Channel), connected TV (e.g., Hulu, Fox, Peacock, Prime Video, BET+) and online video (e.g., YouTube, What to Expect).

Also on Tuesday, Hsu announced that Kimberly-Clark’s Poise Pads ad campaign starring actress Katherine Heigl generated a 36% increase in first-time buyers in the first quarter, and a 26% increase in sales year-over-year “at a key online customer.”