• by Les Luchter , Yesterday

“Oh, sh*t, we got banned from network TV,” declared a recent social media post from largely D2C premium diaper brand Coterie. “We did bleep it out, but parenthood is real sh*t.”

The ad in question, shown here in its :30 form, features three vignettes of social situations where nobody wants to get pooped on by a baby. The spot ends with the line, “Diapers for parents who’ve seen some sh*t.”

That last word, though bleeped, “was flagged by several networks, and our commercials weren’t allowed to air,” the social post continued.

Brittany Deems, Coterie’s senior director of brands, told Marketing Daily that “nearly half” of the TV networks that were scheduled for the campaign starting Monday, June 8, “declined it at the 11^th hour” -- on Friday.

Deems wouldn’t say which networks were the offenders. But she noted that Coterie’s in-house creative team was able to quickly edit the spot over the weekend to gain approval, so the campaign has been on the objecting networks anyway starting with the originally scheduled launch date.

Marketing Daily did obtain a long list of the networks running the uncensored version, which include A&E, Bravo, CW, Hallmark, Lifetime, NFL Network, Oxygen, Syfy and USA. (Media Architects handles Coterie’s’ TV media buying).

For Coterie, the new campaign  --  to run eight weeks -- represents a shift from focusing on new products or the “story of parenthood” to “putting our diaper front and center,” Deems said. “This was the first time we really made it all about the diaper, how it performs and what that means to your experience within parenthood.” 

The campaign, “highlights the challenges around the perception of parenthood and really spotlights the shit, both literally and figuratively” that parents confront vis a vis diapers.

That shit is expressed through the three situations in the hero spot, which are also addressed individually in :15 spots. In one, Coterie is labeled “the super special outfit” diaper for grandma, because “babies save their biggest poops for their most special outfit handknit by Grandma Ethel, definitely not machine washable.” In another, it’s “the pass the baby” diaper for a group of adults, because “everyone wants to hold the baby, kiss the baby, swish the baby, but no one wants to get pooped on by the baby.” In the third, it's “the long-haul flight” diaper, because “you really don’t want to change a diaper in the airplane bathroom.”

The long-haul flight concept also figures into a sweepstakes promotion launching via social media on June 22 for a few days, which will award a “very generous Delta gift card,” per Deems.

Social aspects of the campaign include paid ads on Meta and TikTok, influencer marketing, and as organic posts.

The New York City-based company hopped on the Knicks bandwagon last week with this post, which begins, “Diapers for parents who want to see the Knicks win some sh*t.” It then describes another one of those situations where a long-lasting diaper is important, with Coterie holding up “through pre-gaming, an entire NBA Finals game, courtside celeb-spotting, post-game show and press conference, a few hours of doomscrolling through coverage.”

NYC is also the site of out-of-home in the form of wild postings, which went up June 15 via Quan Media Group. Sample posters read “Coterie. For parents who’ve been pooped on before, and would rather not be pooped on again” and “Coterie. For parents who know babies save their biggest poops for their cutest outfits.”

Deems says the campaign aims to reach both existing customers of the seven-year-old brand -- “some parents that have been with us are on their third kid now” -- as well as potential new customers “in a way that felt approachable and sticky and drives a little bit more ad recall overall.”