11 comments

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  Louis Gray

  7 months ago

  I wouldn't put myself in the angry or incensed group at all, but their message was completely off-base. If I handed you two 5 month old twins and said not to use slings or backpacks, but to use your arms, would you be less fatigued and in pain, or more so? I routinely use slings or baby carriers so I can cope, not so it's a fashion statement.
  
  My wife thought the same. Amusing, but completely stupid. It's got people frustrated on a slow Sunday night. BTW - if you want to try out holding our twins for a bit, swing down to the Bay Area sometime.
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  mathewi

  7 months ago

  Yeah, it was definitely the wrong tone, Louis -- I agree. As for holding the twins, I'm sure you would take any help you could get, sling or otherwise. My brother-in-law had twins and I know they definitely had their hands full. But don't worry -- it gets better, after about five years or so :-)
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  tweetip

  7 months ago

  #motrinmoms ~ 1st Tweets ~ timeline & chart... http://tweetip.us/lkaip
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  ianbetteridge

  7 months ago

  I think this highlights a potential issue for all kinds of creative work, including advertising, going forward. Unless your work is the blandest possible, you will always have 5% of the audience who respond very badly to it. And in a media ecosystem where that tiny minority can have a very big voice thanks to the tools of social media, you face a choice: produce work which offends no one, which is a gauranteed way of making bland content, or be prepared to weather the storm.
  
  I'm not saying Motrin falls into this category, as I haven't seen it (I had to look up what Motrin was - it's not a brand we have over this side of the pond). But it's indicative of how a small minority can create a "media storm".
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  mathewi

  7 months ago

  That's a fair point, Ian. And I'm not even saying that the Motrin moms are necessarily right, or that Motrin shouldn't have made the ad -- but I do think they need to respond, even if it is just a vocal minority.
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  ianbetteridge

  7 months ago

  Indeed. I guess the lesson really is "have a plan to respond to people who are annoyed/upset/angry about what you've done - even if you think your work is inoffensive." And you need that plan before the problem arises, not afterwards.
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  mathewi

  7 months ago

  Exactly.
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  Scott

  7 months ago

  I agree -- Motrin stepped in something foul. Check this post: http://shakethesalt.com/2008/11/moms-speak-out-...
  
  As you posted previously, EA is a prime example with their Tiger Woods "Jesus Shot" video response. With all these communication tools available, companies would be foolish to just ignore stuff like this. Besides, if they respond to the criticism, at the very least it says they're listening. (Or are at least taking the time to create the illusion of listening)
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  Steph @ Problem Solvin Mom

  7 months ago

  I was amazed at how off base the tone of the babywearing ad was, as if they didn't do much if any research... and as frustrating as I found that ad to be, I was even less impressed with the Children's Motrin ad - how many times do I have to hear the word "crazy" before I begin to wonder if I'm being called crazy?
  
  It appeared to me that Motrin was marketing directly to babywearing moms (in the first ad), so whether they are the mainstream or the minority, shouldn't they be "listening" for feedback from this group? The response and even awareness of the buzz the ad created seemed very slow.
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  Daniel Gibbons

  7 months ago

  This reminds me of Mad Men, where they invite one woman into the meeting and ask her "what do women think about product x or issue y"... Very familiar from my days in advertising, which is an industry dominated by people who have virtually no knowledge of the people they're marketing to.
  
  I don't know if this is the case here, but in many ad agencies and marketing departments it seems that research is becoming more and more unfashionable -- sacrificed at the altar of "edgy" or "provocative" creative...
  
  All of which is a long way of saying that the Baby Bjorn saved our life in the first few months of parenthood!
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  antje wilsch

  7 months ago

  Update: they took the video down, and have now put an updated apology on the site.
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