AdAge has a case study on the Motrin ad flap today (hat tip Queen of Spain) that characterizes Motrin’s decision to pull the babywearing ad as caving to “a vocal flash mob.”
It has lots and lots of great numbers to show that not that many people saw the ad. True enough, and I urge everyone to bookmark the article for the Twitter stats alone. Twitter isn’t mainstream, and we shouldn’t kid ourselves that it is. Useful? Promising? Trendy? Yes. But mainstream? Not yet. Maybe not ever.
However, from an advertising perspective, the Motrin team did the absolutely right and responsible thing. The ad offended, no matter how small the number. It pulled it. Last week, Vice President of Marketing for McNeil Healthcare Kathy Widmer wrote on JNJ BTW, the company’s corp comm blog and motrin.com:
So…it’s been almost 4 days since I apologized here for our Motrin advertising. What an unbelievable 4 days it’s been. Believe me when I say we’ve been taking our own headache medicine here lately!
Btw – if you’re confused by this – we removed our Motrin ad campaign from the marketplace on Sunday because we realized through your feedback that we had missed the mark and insulted many moms. We didn’t mean to…but we did. We’ve been able to get most of the ads out of circulation, but those in magazines will, unfortunately, be out there for a while.
We are listening to you, and we know that’s the best place to start as we move ahead. More to come on that.
In the end, we have been reminded of age-old lessons that are tried and true:
- When you make a mistake – own up to it, and say you’re sorry.
- Learn from that mistake.
That’s all… for now.
I wish more marketers would be as responsible and responsive to their customers as McNeil has been here.
it is encouraging the way they handled it
What I see when looking at this study is the huge opportunity missed by Motrin to build their brand/remind people about their brand. While the web can whip people into a frenzy, the fundamental problem with the ad was that it really wasn’t offensive (or particularly interesting). One could argue that instead of caving, motrin could have said nothing. Playing this scenario out, moms get vocal and this story goes viral, and Motrin gets hammered in the marketplace. Except for one thing, the ‘offense’ is so minor that most people who see it (and are not angry blogging moms) will simply ‘not get’ what is offensive and likely think that the moms are over-reacting. Simply put, it is not interesting enough to go viral – would you forward the commercial?.
Motrin encapsulated? LOL!
Interestingly, a few Twitter Moms have been asking why the same level of fury has not been created around the issue of melamine in baby formula. I believe it was only yesterday that the offending companies were identified, so we will see what happens with that. Tolerating poisons in our babies’ food is much more offensive that the Motrin ad.
kim/hormonec-colored days´s last blog post..A tampfabulous holiday craft
Thanks for the comments. We have no way of knowing what further engagement Motrin might have planned with the market segment. I hope they do reach out.
In the end, this was more a quasi-public and very expensive focus group. I remain convinced that there was no good reason to let the campaign run once they knew there were problems. YMMV.
Melamine will be a big issue, full stop. Like BPA. Different type of issue though — the Motrin ad was indeed a single flash point and easily resolved. Poisoning children? Not so much.
I like the way Motrin handled it too, and you’re right about Twitter. Probably not mainstream, however, it’s viral as all get out.