For 125 years, J&J’s Baby Brands have been committed to ensuring every child has the healthiest start regardless of race, gender, or socioeconomic status, a mission that's impossible while racial inequality persists.

2020 became a watershed moment as the United States, traumatized by the brutal murder of George Floyd, faced systems of racism, oppression, and violence. Parents knew making the world a better place for all children needed to involve the youngest minds and hearts, but struggled to find resources to support them bringing children into the conversation.

J&J’s Baby Brands saw an opportunity to help parents shape upcoming generations. From the Start aimed to 1) drive awareness that racial bias develops in children’s early years 2) help parents address their own biases 3) provide knowledge, tools, & resources needed to address racial bias at home, ultimately growing brand affinity inspired by J&J’s Baby Brands commitment to a better world.

To ensure equality among all children, it’s critical for parents to talk to their children early to drive impact.

At 6 months, a baby’s brain may start to notice race-based differences

By 2, children may start to internalize racial bias

Between 2–3, children can begin to show discomfort toward people with different skin color, language, or physical ability

By 5, children start to verbalize & apply labels to people they meet

By 12, many children become set in their beliefs

While parents are motivated to have racial bias conversations, many are misinformed or don’t know where to begin.

70% of parents express an interest in educating their kids about race and bias

Only 40% of parents with children 0-5 said they’ve attempted to broach these subjects.

70% of parents don’t talk to their kids about equality because they believe they’re too young or don’t know how.

Today’s parents want to raise children who think for and beyond themselves– developing a more compassionate and just world. “From the Start” was co-created to provide tools that empower parents to talk to their kids about racial bias. Its purpose is to build a more inclusive and loving future for all children— right from the start.

Every decision driving creative, branding, and distribution needed to “honor the cause;” the struggle of Black and Brown people for equity and equality in America.

The first component focused on inspiration and outreach, using awareness for J&J as a familiar, trusted source for parenting guidance to establish From the Start as a resource for change.

The second focused on education, providing parents with educational materials, conversation guides, and age-appropriate activities and book recommendations.

The final component focused on continuing conversations with expert-driven tools and resources so parents could continue these important conversations at home.

Through partnership with Some Spider Studios, the campaign tapped into channels where millennial parents were already going for guidance, by living across popular parenting platforms– Scary Mommy, Fatherly, and The Dad- whose platforms on social and beyond collectively reach 80% of millennial moms and 90% of millennial dads.

At the center of the campaign was FromTheStart.com: a destination filled with tools & resources; from educational materials & conversation guides; to age-appropriate, developmental-level activity recommendations. To ensure the integrity of our content, we partnered with experts in child psychology, racial bias, cognitive development, education, and entertainment. All content was designed with our audience in mind- from colorful illustrations, simple language, and a custom skin color cursor.

We promoted 30-second videos featuring real parents asking their burning questions related to race and bias and 13 expert-led articles across social media platforms to help parents navigate challenging topics and guided traffic to FromTheStart.com

Overall, ‘From The Start’ was an exceptional success! Lifts across various attribute statements showcased that our content resonated with parents & incited action:

+25% “helping parents uncover their own racial biases”

+22% “uses its resources to support the BIPOC community”

+21% “helping parents address & discuss racial biases with their children”

+19% “using their knowledge to explain and inform”

+18% “committed to encouraging parents to join racial bias conversations early”

+13% “committed to helping individuals and communities uncover & address racial inequality biases”

+ 6% “brands you trust to do the right thing when no one is looking”

Our audience truly engaged with the custom content:

+10% above publisher’s norms for article engagement

time spent on the articles outperforming publisher norms by 2.1x

social media action rates performing at +95% above norms

Additionally, we generated a significant increase in familiarity (+6 points), affinity (+5 points), and purchase intent (+4 points).