Motrin Angers Moms with Patronizing Ad, Social Media Fires Back

by Terri Potratz | November 17, 2008 at 11:23 am

697 views | 16 Recommendations | 10 comments

Motrin ran an ad this weekend that has garnered the ire of moms, bloggers and bystanders - especially on social media sites like Twitter.com.

PR-advertising agency Taxi NYC made a site-promotion for Motrin targeted at mom’s who “wear” their babies (that is using a sling, snugglie, etc) that used a video clip that came off dismissive and patronizing at the same time. Twitter exploded with commentary last night, and it’s still going on today.

The ad directly asserts that moms who carry their babies do it because it's fashionable and that as a result they suffer from painful back, shoulder and neck aches - and therefore need Motrin. Mothers immediately rallied together, firing back at Motrin using social media tools such as blogs and Twitter to point out that the company misrepresented women and their 'problems' and clearly didn't consult actual mothers before running the commercial.

The advertising video started a discussion on Twitter.com, and in the mommy blogging community. Jessica Gottlieb recommended using a #motrinmoms hashtag for the discussion and “a few hours and two thousand tweets later #MotrinMoms is the #1 search on Twitter, eclipsing SNL for the first time since Obama was elected” .

Watch a video compilation of some tweets here - a video which has had thousands and thousands of views today alone.

Analysts are pointing to the "Motrin Mom" outrage as a valuable learning opportunity for marketing agencies who may not understand the incredible power of social media tools - or the swiftness with which public opinion can be swayed through sites like Twitter. Extremely smart marketers will not only learn from this, but if they take the time to read through the Twitter commentary they'll find a lot of useful information that they could take into account when designing their next campaign.

Motrin has responded fairly quickly, publishing an apology on their website and advising their customers that they have been heard:

With regard to the recent Motrin advertisement, we have heard you.

On behalf of McNeil Consumer Healthcare and all of us who work on the Motrin Brand, please accept our sincere apology.

We have heard your concerns about the ad that was featured on our website. We are parents ourselves and we take feedback from moms very seriously.

We are in process of removing this ad from all media. It will, unfortunately, take a bit of time to remove it from our magazine advertising, as it is on newsstands and in distribution.

Thank you for your feedback. It's very important to us.

Sincerely,

Kathy Widmer
Vice President of Marketing,
McNeil Consumer Healthcare

A smart move on behalf of Motrin (though the "we're parents ourselves" bit got some negative attention on Twitter), and a clear validation of the power of social media to enact change.

For a final laugh, see this hilarious list of "12 Ideas Motrin Ditched Before They Greenlighted the BabyWearing Ad."

2 See all footage | View Slideshow

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JeffHuang

at 11:45 on November 17th, 2008

They thought it was clever, but it sure backfired. Their marketing group is finito.

Yuliya Talmazan

at 11:58 on November 17th, 2008

or they are just going with the principle of "any attention is good attention."

christiananderson

at 12:11 on November 17th, 2008

http://www.mediadeluge.com/post/60076404/motrin-ad-misses-mark-social-media-moms-miffed

christiananderson has contributed a photo to this story.

carolbrowne

at 12:56 on November 17th, 2008

I was thinking the same thing as yuls.source..."or they are just going with the principle of "any attention is good attention."'

Terri Potratz

at 13:36 on November 17th, 2008

could be...although I doubt they would have invested the $$ into distributing the ad to print media if it was simply a publicity stunt designed to attract attention and traffic.

frankieteardrop

at 14:12 on November 17th, 2008

Ugh, come on already, what is the big deal. Is everyone so desperately starving to feel useful and potent that this ad qualifies as a lightning rod for grassroots, power-to-the-soccer-moms dissent?

Pass the Pringles, Oprah's starting...