Is this Japanese diaper commercial sexist, misguided or innocuous?
Advertising the Moony brand of diapers, the “moms don’t cry” commercial by Unicharm Japan was actually released in December last year but has recently become a talking point online — for all the wrong reasons.
The criticism largely centers on how the rather mawkish commercial exalts women for handling all the childrearing duties alone, rather than showing how parenting should be the responsibility of both the father and mother (whatever the sad reality is in Japan and elsewhere). The father (and presumed husband) hardly makes an appearance at all during the two minutes of the commercial. While this may well be close to the truth of childrearing in Japan, it may seem strange to fete such a scenario.
The company, though, unlike many other easily frightened Japanese brands, has so far not backed down and refuses to take down the video.
We live in over-sensitive times, when any perceived infraction of a moral code is gleefully and frenziedly seized upon by social media users. Is this another case of the over-zealous Twittersphere reading too much into a mundane advertising campaign, or should Unicharm be reprimanded for promoting old-fashioned models of parenting?
