Motrin Ad Misses Mark: Social Media Moms Miffed
Motrin launched a new online campaign on www.motrin.com this weekend to kick off International Babywearing Week. The ad, which appears to take jabs at baby-wearing mommies sparked controversy fist on Twitter and then across the web.
from Mashable: “Avid Twitter user and mom, Jessica Gottlieb is the originator of the conversation via her Twitter network. The dialogue (and overwhelming outrage) is growing exponentially. Already there are thousands of comments on #motrinmoms” and #Motrin.
See the ad here:
Regardless of what you think of the ad, The motrinmoms case illustrates why brands must monitor how they are being perceived online. In Social Media How-to Guide: Getting Started I led with how to listen online. Listening is the most important tool social media can offer a brand manager.
Twitter acts as an early warning system. For the brand manager paying attention to Twitter, and other social media, often embarrassing gaffs can be avoided or at least mitigated because the early warning system identifies what could have been a major embarrassment before the general public hears about it.
(update)
This story looks to be jumping to the mainstream. The Baltimore Sun and Forbes both covered today with Motrin markets to moms — and gains a pain and Twitter Moms Sink Motrin Ad respectively.
More and more, Twitter is driving blog coverage. A Tweet (a post on Twitter) like Jessica Gottlieb’s gets attention. Bloggers dive deeper and post. In some cases, TechCrunch, RWW, and others jump on the story. Not only do TechCrunch and RWW have huge readership, but they are also syndicated in the Washington Post and NYT respectively. suddenly, millions of people are reading about how you enraged a constituency and how that group is making YouTube videos about how insensitive your are (see below).
MEDIAdeluge:
- louisgray.com, Brand Reputation Management Is Not a Monday-Friday Gig
- Mashable, Motrin Moms: Social Media Fail Whale
- The Standard, Motrin learns there’s a downside to viral advertising
- The Inquisitr, Motrin Moms Commercial causes outrage. Thing is: seriously?
