Motrin targets moms but shoots self in foot
If you're going to launch an online ad on a Saturday and spark outrage among your target audience, you might want to plan to work the weekend. Motrin caused the aforementioned fuss with an ad aimed at moms who practice "baby wearing," the fine art of carrying your kid in a sling or backpack. The spot comes off sounding pretty insulting to these moms, whom it implies are treating their babies like fashion accessories. When mom bloggers got wind of the spot, they started a tidal wave of criticism, flooding Twitter with thousands of angry comments about Motrin. (Here's a video compilation of some of the irate feedback.) Assuming the ad was the work of Motrin agency Taxi New York, a blogger contacted the agency's director of corporate communications, who was reportedly unaware of the online firestorm. Social media professionals were quick to point out that there's no good excuse these days for failing to notice that your new ad went over like a fart in church. "Motrin apparently did little to no monitoring of their intended audience before or during the Twitterstorm," writes new-media maven Mack Collier, "which is still baffling to me in this day and age of free and easy tools to let you do just that." UPDATE: Motrin has now apologized in a message on its homepage.
—Posted by David Griner
- Would Yahoo or Facebook Make a Better Tumblr Parent?
- Gevalia Aims for a Buzzy Social Partying Weekend
- Meet the Sleepy's Creative Finalists
- Modest Buzz for NewFront Content Based on Social Sharing Data
- Former Publicis COO Richard Pinder on Reimagining Global Networks
- Yahoo Adding Tweets to Homepage
- Embattled Abercrombie CEO Backpedals on Exclusionary Comments
- NBCUniversal Expands Licensing Deal With Amazon
- Obscure Direct Response Brands Dominate Facebook Chatter
- YouTube Star Tobuscus Forced Into Making Insane Musical Ad for Hot Pockets
- Yahoo in Talks to Acquire Tumblr
- California Winery's Ads Pair the Product With Sex, Drugs and More Sex
- Dumb Ways to Die Is Now a Video Game for the iPhone and iPad
- He Shoots, He Scores: David Beckham's 10 Most-Viral Commercials
- British Advertising Hits New Low With Commercial Starring Talking Butt Crack
- Fitness Company's Video Goes Viral Thanks to Dude Taking a Dump in the Background
AdFreak is your daily blog of the best and worst of creativity in advertising, media, marketing and design. Follow us as we celebrate (and skewer) the latest, greatest, quirkiest and freakiest commercials, promos, trailers, posters, billboards, logos and package designs around. Edited by Adweek's Tim Nudd. Updated every weekday, with a weekly recap on Saturdays.


Email
Print







