Mommy Bloggers Bare Teeth at Motrin
Mommy Bloggers, women who blog in part about children, motherhood and family, have had an increasing presence online. Over the past few years, Mommy Bloggers have received their fair share of ridicule and scorn. But the population has shown a fierce sense of camaraderie, pride and, not surprisingly, intelligence. Companies have begun to recognize that this is a force to be reckoned with and have partnered with these savvy business women for advertising, product giveaways and reviews. Big guns such as Walmart and Sony are launching mom-driven focus groups and online panels. Advertisers are starting to acknowledge that women typically don't buy things based solely on ads, but based on word of mouth recommendations.
So, if we are willing to try new products based on personal recommendations from others, what happens when we aren't behind a particular brand? Johnson & Johnson's Motrin brand might be about to find out. They had the unfortunate experience of learning just what happens when viral marketing goes wrong and Mommy Bloggers get angry.
 Moms & Dads Around the Globe Practice Babywearing for Convenience & ComfortPhotodisc/Getty Images |
As part of a new ad campaign, Motrin released a video poking fun at the popularity of babywearing, or carrying a baby in a pouch or sling. The ad suggested that moms wear slings as a fashion statement and that babywearing is a strain on your back and neck (babywearing moms will tell you that with the proper gear, the opposite is true). The unfortunate ad, which many found condescending and offensive, coincided with International Babywearing Week. It was taken by many as a slap in the face to that community and to moms in general.
The result was a fast and furious online campaign consisting of emails, dozens of blog posts, thousands of tweets (search for #motrinmoms on Twitter to follow the excitement), and even a montage video of responses from folks from all over the Internet. Yikes. One clever mom quipped, "Would love to be in the CEO's office on Monday morning. Not enough Motrin in the world for that headache!"
Well, it didn't take until Monday morning for Motrin to respond. Kathy Widmer, Vice President of Marketing for McNeil Consumer Healthcare (the division of Johnson & Johnson that sells Motrin) has already sent out at least one note of apology. You can read it at Ladybug Landings. As of late Sunday evening, the Motrin site is offline and, presumably, they are removing the offending ad.
If anyone doubted the power of viral marketing, here's your proof. I suspect more and more companies will be chatting it up with the Mommy Blogging community to avoid repeating Motrin's mistake.
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Comments
Did you see my post on what their ad agency Taxi NYC had to say when I talked to a rep at 12 noon today –long before McNeil responded? http://tinyurl.com/mmotrin
Christy - I read about this over the weekend, but your article is the most comprehensive I’ve found on the Motrin ad debacle. Had this campaign been designed by collecting more insight from talking to a decent cross section of moms, it really could have been a service to moms like me, who never did find the right baby carrier and suffered from back pain. Hopefully, this incident gets advertising professionals to actually get to know the customer base they are attempting to serve. Advertising is about educating the public as much as it’s about the “almighty dollar”.
shelley
I’m not sure if it was a “fast and furious online campaign” as much as it was simply an example of the extensive networks that Twitter has created. Women re-tweeted the link and each of their readers viewed the ad and made their own decision and tweeted about it again. It was more organic than organized I think.
I think in fact, it would be difficult to convince people to form a new opinion about such a well-trusted product. The ad was simply, awful, and most people who saw it recognized it as such and passed the word to their own networks.