I sincerely hope nobody lost their job over this. It was just an ad, after all.

Although how it ever saw the light of day is beyond me. I’m not sure what exactly what it was going for, but here’s what it said to me: “Moms are daft creatures who do painful things so they can follow the latest fad even though there is actually no benefit besides looking like a cool mom. And if you aren’t babywearing, you need to get with the program so you can look cool too.” Holding an older baby without the assistance of a wrap or sling, and hauling a little baby around in those car seats – now that’s painful! I don’t remember experiencing anything more than slight tension when I wore my kids – and that meant I needed to adjust my carrier. Not pop pills.

EXACTLY. *applauds*

Her Bad Mother´s last blog post..Motrin Versus The Moms: When Painkillers Are Attacked, Everybody Loses

Motrin did NOT do their homework. They didn’t research babywearing at all from what I can tell, and what parents were involved with the ad must have either used a bad carrier or never wore their baby at all to come up with it. So, rightfully, the moms it was supposedly aimed at made sure Motrin knew that it had not only missed the mark but had alienated the very group they hoped to reel in.

As for the timing, that was Motrin’s fault. In all honesty? Kudos to the moms who jumped on this right away, and Motrin should be GRATEFUL they did. This could have gotten far worse.

I’ve been wearing my baby since she was born. I’ve tried a lot of carriers, some DID hurt. I kept trying til I found ones that worked. Now, not every mom might do this, but there are ways to phrase things that are less offensive. For example, something along the lines of “Studies have shown how good babywearing is, both for baby development and for bonding. As more and more moms are starting to wear their babies, Motrin wants you to know we understand. Doing the best thing for your baby is your first concern. For any aches and pains that might go along with it, we’re here.” Whatever, I’m not a copywriter, but you get the point.

Many of tweets I saw — many of the same ones Shannon saw — were anti-mom. Some bordered on name-calling. That’s not right. I’m not going to repeat them here but I’d be happy to send you some. As you say, respectfully disagree and acknowledge a person’s right to express an opinion. Name calling? Not so good.

Babywearing is a pretty passionate topic for many parents. They consider it as important a parenting decision as schooling and discipline. I’m pretty certain that the non-tweeting babywearing community would be just as irritated as the Tweeters. It would just take longer. In this respect Motrin has actually lucked out because it can find out it if that is the case before it makes a potentially bigger mistake.

It’s not my reaction, or perhaps yours, but it is theirs, and they have every right to speak out if they feel a personal lifestyle decision is being mocked.

McNeil/Motrin thought the ad was edgy and funny. It doesn’t come across that way to many of the people it was purportedly aimed at. That’s a fail.

Now, perhaps you think the folks at McNeil apologized to avoid a bigger shitstorm. I’d prefer to think that they realized they might have missed the mark.

Re: the weekend. If you are going to launch something over the weekend, you’d best be prepared to handle the response. Want to wait until you are at work to handle things? Do it Monday. No pass from me on that.

I can’t comment on the individual motivations of the people who reacted over the weekend. What I do believe is that McNeil/Motrin could have done a better job if it had delved a bit deeper, done a bit more listening, and yes, paid more attention to mom bloggers.

Hopefully it will take the opportunity.

One, the point of lots of babywearing moms didn’t like it. Lots of them, or just lots of them on social networks? Since Motrin has been through this before (if I recall correctly there was a fuss when they actually started the mom-targeting–something about it being sexist to imply only women got headaches, even though women *do* get far more than men), I’d be very surprised if they hadn’t run it by some. That the social media subset didn’t think it was funny is different. I don’t know, just wanted to point out that there could be a disparity there.

I think that there is a real danger every time we see one of these “twitstorms” (rhymes with…) that social media is seen as hot-headed, humorless, and a little irrational. Example: the tweet that you have screen-captured that depicts anyone who sticks up for Motrin as “anti-mom hate.” That’s just flat-out unfair, and smacks of “you can have any opinion you want, as long as it’s in agreement with mine.”

“Large, active, and increasingly powerful.” With great power comes great responsibility. Reacting with such disdain on the weekend (hey, maybe those “listening” at Motrin were spending time with *their* families) is not demonstrating that Mom bloggers understand the power that they yield–they are out to punish, not educate.

I’m not a mom, but I am a Godmother to two, and “faux-Aunt” to many. Carrying a child can cause back pain, and those slings are just not made for everyone. So they have connected with me.

I’m buying a big bottle of Motrin this afternoon.

Jen