The ‘B for Bobbie Campaign’: Smart Or Insensitive?
Some of our best work comes from not being aligned straight away. Our team brings together diverse lived experiences, disciplines and perspectives, which means conversations in the office are often lively, and questioning - in the best possible way. These debates sharpen our thinking, challenge assumptions and ultimately help us deliver work that is more considered, culturally fluent and grounded in the real world.
As we prepare to officially launch our health and wellbeing offer in early 2026 (watch this space), we’ve been spending a lot of time interrogating recent healthcare campaigns: how they land, who they serve, and where they fall short. In healthcare, pushback doesn’t necessarily mean something is wrong; it often reflects the life-and-death stakes involved. When people’s health and safety are on the line, scrutiny is not just expected, it’s essential.
One campaign that sparked internal debate was Bobbie, the organic baby formula company's recent collaboration with the US rapper Cardi B. The partnership generated significant attention but also raised important questions about credibility, sensitivity, and systems-level thinking in maternal and infant health.
Some team members thought:
The campaign leveraged Cardi B as a pop culture icon, whose personality and public voice aligned naturally with Bobbie’s brand values, helping the campaign achieve immediate cultural relevance and cut through.
The launch was thoughtful and timely. Cardi B was heavily pregnant at the time of launch, which made the message feel current, credible and rooted in real parental experience.
The execution was bold and created a real talkability factor. The hotline concept and Cardi’s unfiltered tone ‘motherhood is a real ass job’ drove attention in a crowded category without feeling forced or overly commercial.
On the other hand, other members of our cube felt:
The collaboration blurred the lines between health messaging and commercial promotion in a category with a long and complex history. Formula marketing has historically targeted low-income and marginalised communities, often undermining breastfeeding, an issue underscored by the well-documented Nestlé controversies of the 1970s and 80s.
Messaging that centres individual ‘choice’ without acknowledging structural realities, such as inadequate maternity leave and parental support, particularly in the US, can feel incomplete, if not tone-deaf.
The use of celebrity endorsements in sensitive health spaces can be inappropriate. While Cardi B brings reach and cultural relevance, celebrity partnerships can read as marketing-first. This can raise questions around demographic fit, credibility, lived experience and whether star power builds trust (or undermines it).
There wasn’t a single ‘right’ answer, and that’s the point. These conversations remind us that effective health comms demand nuance, humility and a deep understanding of context. Sometimes a campaign can be both well-intentioned and flawed. Our job is to sit with that complexity and help brands and organisations navigate it responsibly.
That’s the value of different perspectives, and why we welcome them. It makes our work stronger.
If you’d like to hear more about our Health and Wellbeing PR and marketing offer, please get in touch with us on breaktheice@coldr.london for more information.