Comments on: Serendipitous connections: exploring the Motrin Mom Fiasco

By: Wikinomics » Blog Archive » Dealing with backlash in the blogosphere: a personal experience

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 17:34:04 +0000

[...] 25th, 2008, 12:34pm Last week I wrote about the Motrin Mom fiasco, and then spent a fair bit of time thinking about the best way for a company to respond to the [...]

By: Denis Hancock

Denis Hancock — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 13:36:54 +0000

Elizabeth,

As I referred to at the end of my post that is one of the things I find most fascinating here. You would THINK the company would not try to dissuade women from carrying their babies, and would rather you continue to do so.

But I have yet to come across someone that has viewed that ad and interpreted it as a message to NOT carry babies. Key elements here are bolded – seems to be in fashion, in theory a good idea, supposedly a real bonding experience, etc.

By: Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 16:27:11 +0000

“I’m blessed with having a wonderful 7-month old daughter at home, and her equally wonderful mother taking care of her. The latter has some very strong opinions on parenting, and in particular when companies try to send messages that dissuade mothers from doing certain things that, say, thousands of years of history and an extraordinary number of experts indicate are good things to do.”

Except the company wasn’t trying to dissuade women from babywearing, were they? Motrin would rather you continue to babywear (and if you experience pain, reach for Motrin), than not babywear. Motrin doesn’t CARE if you babywear. Why should they? They care about ensuring that whatever pains you have in your life — you know that Motrin is available. Whether you got them from running or lifting heavy bags or falling down the stairs or babywearing.

If Motrin targeted college students with an ad that says “carrying around your heavy backpack with books and laptop can cause pain, reach for Motrin,” would they be trying to dissuade students from studying? No, they’d be pitching Motrin as a solution to a problem the students have, without making commentary on whether the students “should” have the problem or not.

If a nipple cream targets breastfeeding mothers with an ad that says, “if your nipples get sore from breastfeeding, reach for this nipple cream”, would they be trying to dissuade mothers from breastfeeding? No, they’d be pitching their product as a solution to a problem the mothers have.

By: Ken Leebow

Ken Leebow — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 17:23:50 +0000

I wonder: is the Motrin “controversy” a hoax? Look at how much press it has gotten. I for one, would never have watched the commercial. And, as many people have stated: “It really wasn’t very offensive.”

So, the real question is: How many thousands or millions of people were exposed to Motrin that otherwise would not have been?

I think Motrin was a winner in this one.

Now, GM, Ford, and Chrysler, well that’s a real PR fiasco.

By: Kyle Maxwell

Kyle Maxwell — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 21:24:12 +0000

Their response added to the problem here, which (as Seth Godin has noted) used a generic “corporate voice,” rather than a “human voice” that could really have settled things down. MBA-speak, not person-speak.

They responded quickly, in other words, but not nearly as effectively as they could (and should) have.

Also, nothing wrong with us dads having strong opinions about parenting…

By: Jenn Durley

Jenn Durley — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 19:20:54 +0000

Oops! It would be funny if the phrase “Motrin pain” came to generally describe costly advertising snafus.