Heard about Motrin Moms?
So Motrin (yeah, the pain reliever) just a little headache today courtesy of Twitter. They launched a new ad campaign targeting the pains of moms… however… the campaign did not sit well. Not well at all.
Mothers took offense to the add (perhaps the claims that carrying a baby is in fashion now) and posted complaints on twitter. Motrin ended up blogging an apology:
McNeil Meets Twitter – We Hear You
November 17th, 2008
By Kathy Widmer, Vice President of Marketing, McNeil Consumer Healthcare
This weekend, a lot was said about Motrin on Twitter and in the blogosphere. Unfortunately, it was not the kind of conversation that we here at McNeil had hoped to be at the center of.
For those who haven’t been following this, it all began when we ran an advertisement online over the weekend that talked about babywearing – which is a term that we used to describe carrying a child in a sling or wrap.
It was meant to engender sympathy and appreciation for all that parents do for their kids, but did so through an attempt at humor that missed the mark and many moms found offensive.
Now as you can imagine, we certainly didn’t mean to offend moms through our advertising. As a mom of three girls, I understand many of the comments made and agree that we know what’s best for our kids and for ourselves.
On behalf of McNeil, I’m sorry if you found this advertisement insulting. We are are in the process of removing it from our website. Unfortunately, it will take longer for us to remove this advertisement from magazines as several are currently on newsstands and in distribution.
One bright spot is that we have learned through this process – in particular, the importance of paying close attention to the conversations that are taking place online. It has also brought home the importance of taking a broader look at what we say and how it may be interpreted
My take? Very interesting on how Twitter can create quick impact… now it’s time to move on to something better… like the economy, Darfur, domestic violence, or anything.