Media release May 11, 2008
Search On For New Zealand’s Happiest ‘Kiddies’
A new website designed to celebrate New Zealand’s happiest mums and their littlies launches this Mother’s Day – May 11.
Kiwi mums and dads can film their child’s best chuckle and upload the footage to the Happy Kiddies website
www.happykiddies.co.nz to share with other parents.
This initiative is conducted by leading brand Nutricia and is designed to host great moments of joy on the faces of
children, with their favourite happy kiddies featuring in an upcoming television commercial.
Film crews will also be on hand from May 26 until June 8, capturing some of New Zealand’s brightest and most beguiling
young smiles.
All entries uploaded to the Happy Kiddies website by the 11th June will be in with a chance to have their little one
featured in an upcoming commercial for Karicare Follow On formula and Toddler Supplement.
Nutricia is committed to the well-being of toddlers so there’s more to this idea than just offering proud parents the
chance to see their kiddies light up the television screens.
Auckland University humour expert Dr Barbara Plester says laughter provides a number of benefits for mums and their
young ones.
“Sharing laughter offers a physical release from tension and tiredness and is a great way to emotionally connect”, she
says.
“One of the functions of laughter is to create harmony and cohesion and sharing laughter is a wonderful bonding
experience for mums and children. The relief experienced from laughter offers a safety valve and is a wonderful outlet
for expressing strong emotions. Laughter can help us to replace distressing emotions with feelings of pleasure and joy,”
says Dr Plester.
Managing Director for Karicare, Toni Brendish, says the company is excited to be launching such a celebratory
initiative.
“We hope this campaign spreads a lot of joy. Laughing is contagious and a valued avenue of communication we all share
despite our age. We can’t wait to view the entries.”
ENDS
Notes to Editors:
Dr Barbara Plester
University of Auckland’s Barbara Plester has a PhD in Management and her PhD research was entitled “Laugh out loud” and
explored organizational culture and workplace humour. She also holds a Masters degree in Management and this earlier
research explored the functions of humour in some New Zealand companies. She teaches in the areas of management,
business communication and organizational behaviour and has a Diploma in Teaching from Christchurch Teachers College. As
well as having experience in teaching young children Barbara is also a mum to four busy, noisy children and firmly
believes that laughter is her best survival tool!
Her on-going research at the University of Auckland continues the exploration of workplace humour and future research
will include email humour, humour roles, leadership and humour, IT culture and organizational misbehaviour. She has
industry experience in sales and marketing, project management and HR functions. She has worked in Publishing and in the
Information Communications Technology industry.