Motrin is feeling the pain. The ad attached here was attacked online over the weekend, mainly from those of us on Twitter. Mothers complained it was offensive. What do you think?
The coverage from the mainline media, and the thousands of Tweets on Twitter made the company pull the ad from its website and issue an apology for upcoming print ads. The woman who sparked this controversy is L.A.-based blogger, freelance writer and mother, Jessica Gottlieb. On Saturday, she received a Twitter message asking her to check out the online Motrin video. Which she promptly did and started the firestorm, and then let the world know how much it offended her.
I don’t think the ad was that offensive, maybe the “trendy” part about wearing your baby and the obvious exaggeration about wearing “it on your side, your back” etc. was too much. But, people are entitled to their opinion, and they now have an instant venting mechanism. I guess this Motrin ad and McNeil Consumer Healthcare, will go down as a case history of companies trying to deal with a newly-empowered audience that can talk back to ads, almost instantly, even on a weekend. Search MotrinMoms on Twitter and see what I mean. One mom stayed up until 4AM to respond to the ad with a Youtube video.
On a somewhat related note, my friends Dan and Eileen just had their fifth child – a baby boy. Congratulations! I’ll have to ask them how they plan on carrying him?
Until next time, Tim
