Goop’s $120 ‘Luxury Diaper’ Isn’t Just a Ridiculous PR Stunt — It’s Trying to Make a Point

The language was perfectly in line with how Gwyneth Paltrow’s wellness and lifestyle company has marketed previous products, including its famous vagina-scented candles. But can you put an accent on “diaper” and call it luxury?

Many followers were immediately skeptical, while others were curious that anyone would create such a product, let alone buy it. Still, others thought they would do just that. After all, if you’re super-wealthy, why not pamper your little one with something a little more high-end than Pampers?

The product does promise to leave you with a “revitalized baby” as it’s been “infused with a scent of jasmine and bergamot.” Oh, and it’s not totally obnoxious. $120 does get you a full dozen of the beats when they go on sale Thursday — or at least, it would have had any of this been real.

Unfortunately for those few fans excited about showing off their baby’s dirty diapers to all their friends, by Wednesday night, Goop had let the cat out of the bag, or the baby out of the diaper, as the case may be.

In a video follow-up to the post that horrified and disgusted a good segment of the population, Gwyneth Paltrow herself revealed that the whole thing had been an elaborate PR stunt — but on with a message about taxation of essential items. She even explained how they landed on their ridiculous $120 price tag.

“If treating diapers like a luxury makes you mad, so should taxing them like a luxury,” Goop captioned the post. “Despite the absolute necessity of diapers, in 33 states, they aren’t treated as an essential item. They’re taxed as a luxury good.”

The caption went on to explain that $120 is about what the diaper tax could cost a family in a year. And with many of those families struggling to make ends meet with rising costs and the national formula shortage, this is an extra burden they don’t need.

The attention-getting ploy is also hoping that it draws enough eyes to the Goop IG page to make a difference, inviting the company’s followers to “donate to @baby2baby to help provide diapers, formula, and other essentials to families in need.”

According to an email from the PR company reportedly received by Motherboard after the initial Diapér went viral like those one-time-use jeans (another “message” stunt), Paltrow was scheduled to clear up the real message on Thursday when the product was supposed to release.

Whether because Motherboard went ahead and shared details of the email and what was really going on, or because the outcry was getting too loud, Paltrow’s explanation video went live on Wednesday night instead.