One diaper package shows a dozing infant nestled into its father’s chest. On another, a baby is tucked beneath a white duvet, its fists propping up its cheeks from the squashy pillow. A different package shows a sleeping newborn lying up against a soft toy rabbit almost equal in size. While these images may be cute, they are potentially dangerous.
Safe sleeping practices for babies help reduce the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), the unexpected and unexplained death of an infant under the age of one. And we've known since the early 1990s that putting babies to sleep on their tummies was a major risk factor for SIDS. Today, any expectant parent joining an antenatal class will find that establishing safe sleeping habits is a cornerstone of the syllabus. This includes placing infants on their backs on a firm, flat mattress in an enclosed sleeping area free from other people, toys, pillows and other soft furnishings.
The power of imagery in advertising shapes behavior.
Thankfully, this knowledge, information-sharing and the ‘Back to Sleep’/ ‘Safe to Sleep’ campaigns have led to a significant drop in infant deaths over the past few decades.
But as they step out of antenatal classes and into the real world, parents may be confronted by opposing messages on safe sleeping from their families, other parents, social media and – new research shows – adverts for baby products.
Although progress has been made, SIDS still results in approximately 1,400 deaths per year in Europe. Research has estimated that these deaths could be prevented by better educating parents on the risk factors.
The occurrence and power of misleading images in advertising
Since the afore-mentioned high-profile campaigns, parents’ behavior in terms of safe infant sleep recommendations is becoming increasingly inconsistent, according to recent evaluations. Why could this be?
Aware that pictures have the power to actively shape behavior, we decided to explore the imagery used in baby product packaging. We looked specifically at disposable baby diaper packaging, comparing the images used with safe infant sleep recommendations and looking for inconsistencies.
We found over 600 baby diaper packages designed for infants weighing under 5kg and at the highest risk of SIDS. We analyzed the images on the packaging and compared them to the sleeping practices endorsed by most European countries. What we found was shocking: 79% of packages depicting a sleeping infant were inconsistent with at least one recommendation for the prevention of SIDS.
Just over half of the packaging depicted a sleeping baby, and of these, only 21% showed babies sleeping safely. Of the remainder:
- 45% showed a baby lying on its tummy or on its side,
- 51% showed soft objects or loose bedding (pillows, pillow-like toys, stuffed toys, quilts, comforters, sheepskins, blankets, non-fitted sheets, or bumper pads),
- 10% depicted a baby sharing its sleeping area with another person.
What to do? We do know that advertisements (from the French word meaning ‘warning’) conveying implicit or explicit messages have the potential to actively shape what we do through the influence of authority and social proof. And while we often reduce advertising to a persuasive tool, let us remember that it is first simply a source of information for consumers.
Legislating against unsafe images
To maximally reduce the number of babies dying from SIDS, we need to reduce parents’ exposure to images depicting unsafe sleeping practices. In protecting this vulnerable group, we want to see manufacturers of baby products held to higher standards.
In Europe, baby diaper manufacturers are already subject to the European General Product Safety Directive to ensure the products themselves are safe, but we want to see this extended to their packaging.
Legislation enforcing adherence to safe sleeping practices in packaging imagery is crucial to protect infants from SIDS.
But stronger legislation could demand that manufacturers only depict babies sleeping per the most recent safe sleeping practices outlined by the American Academy of Pediatrics. This would not be the first time that the persuasive power of images has been used in legislation: a decade ago, images of infants on infant formula packaging were banned to prevent the idealization of breast milk substitutes over breast milk. Such a move could contribute positively to the messaging around SIDS, acting as social proof and indirect information for parents about how to minimize the risk for their baby.
