The Motrin Mom advertisement outraged mothers. The ad, meant to target mothers, received a huge backlash from angry blogs, facebook, and twitter comments. Women were angry that Motrin compared carrying a baby in a sling to a fashion trend and that it made the mother look like an "official mom". In some twitter comments where mothers expressed how offended they were by the ad, also wondered if Motrin has any clue what mothers think. Shortly after the uproar the company pulled the advertisement off the Internet and closed their website entirely. After being taken down for an evening, Motrin posted an apology on their website. Kathy Widmer, VP of Marketing for McNeil Consumer Healthcare sincerely apologized and assured that the ad was being removed from their website and magazine print. Widmer also gave thanks for all the feedback, saying "its very important to us." I think that a commercial apologizing for the ad would have had more of an impact and reached more viewers. Overall, Motrin received a lot of publicity, whether it is good or bad, time will tell. However, I do not believe that loyal Motrin users are going to be affected by this advertisement.
The official apology posted on the Motrin website:
Good point on the loyal users. Also not ALL Motrin users are mothers. There are plenty that are our age and do not have kids. Also not everyone is as sensitive, and can find the humor in their own annoyances.
ReplyDelete