I never intended to write a “Motrin” post today. It never even crossed my mind, after all so many other moms blogged, vlogged, tweeted, youtubed their opinions about the Motrin ad, I figured I didn’t really need to. This post isn’t about my opinion. Yes I did think the ad was distasteful and insulted the very demographic they were seeking. Truth is I loved wearing both of my kids, I didn’t do it to “look cool” and it certainly didn’t make me feel like a “official mom.” Isn’t that what the minivan is for? (just joking, don’t send the hate mail just yet)
I wore my babies because they wanted to be held and I needed to get some work done around the house. Wearing my baby allowed me to spend quality time with him while I worked. It was easier for me to wear him when I went to the mall. The stroller was just a pain to get in and out of the car. Wearing my baby made it easier for me to tend to my older child when she needed me. It just made my life easier. Would I do it again? Sure, I still slip him in the sling when he’s felling a little clingy. Did I get back aches? Every now and then it depended on what I was using and how long I was wearing him. It was never bad enough to grab pain medication.
But like I said this isn’t a post about my opinion on the Motrin advertisement.
This post is about how powerful and important the internet has become. I imagine it would have taken weeks; possible months to get enough people to complain about this ad either through written letters or voicemails to have a large enough impact that would make Motrin want to pull the ad. Let alone apologize for it.
In today’s world it took a weekend.
I’m not sure when the ad officially went up, but it was discovered on twitter on Saturday. Going through search.twitter.com today I found 8 pages of tweets talking about the advertisement. Some moms are irate, some don’t think it wasn’t that big of a deal but the overall consensus is that it was made in bad taste.
Katija @ KatijaPresnal made a youtube video in what seemed a couple of hours about how offensive the video was. The video as a montage of twittering mom’s comments and the first time I saw my name on screen (Yeah Me!).
Several other moms starting vlogging about their experiences baby wearing and how disrespectful and offensive the ad was. In fact I did a search today on youtube.com for “Motrin ad” about 44 videos were available. The highest ranking video was up to 27,877 page views and it was just added just 21 hours ago. That is less than a day, people!
It amazes me that through twitter, moms conveyed their opinions and got the word out so effectively that it caused a huge organization to pull their distasteful ad and offer an apology in one weekend. Twitter, youtube, ning, wordpress, flip, and so many other companies have completely changed the way we as a community can convey information.
I am in awe on how quickly the word got out about this Motrin advertisement and amazed that the power of twittering moms caused Motrin to re-think their advertising campaign.
Did the Motrin campaign change your opinion about Motrin? Will you boycott the drug? Or do you think this entire incident was blown out of proportion?
Personally I think it was all blown out of proportion. I didn’t see the ad but from what I understand, it could have been handled better. But I feel the same way about every erectile dysfunction ad or ads for mental health meds.
I agree that apparently there is power with the internet moms. But I think this weekend could have been spent doing something a little more important.
I do think it was blown out of proportion. I agree that the ad was distasteful but like you said there is a powerful network out there. I feel that as a mom our efforts should focus on what can better our country and children rather than take down an ad.
For instance, the bailout got tremendous feedback from the citizens. Issues like that deserve our attention and efforts and we should concentrate more of our networking powers towards important world changing issues as that rather than advertisements that most people don’t pay attention to.
But I don’t want to say that we don’t use our efforts for the greater good, because there are wonderful moms out there using their networks to help charities and other good deeds and that is to be commended. We need more of that. So let’s continue to band together and make a difference!
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