March 08, 2018
Huggies shamed for bad baby names
A multinational manufacturer of baby nappies is being slammed for offering bad advice to Maori parents – and refusing to fix its mistakes.
Maori digital champion Karaitiana Taiuru says he became aware a year ago that a list of Maori baby names on the Huggies website included a number of names that were not Maori, and also names of Maori demigods like Ruaumoko and Tangaroa that are not normally given to pepi.
His attempts to contact the firm through phone, tweet and email drew no response, and the faulty information is still on the site.
He says it's corporate neglect of te reo Maori.
"It's an international corporation who really do not care about Maori issues or the impact their bad advice is having. It wouldn't take much time or money to correct or even edit what they have written on their web site. They have failed to do it for over a year now," Mr Taiuru says.
He doesn't want to see new parents give incorrect or inappropriate names to their pepi.
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