Nov18
Motrin’s big mistake
Motrin released a new ad that got a lot of moms so roiled that they expressed their anger publicly and with such vehemence that Motrin pulled the ad off the air. The ad outraged mothers who took offense at the condescending tone and the accusation that moms who carry their babies in slings do so in order to make a fashion statement. If you haven’t seen the ad, you can watch it here:
It’s not a very good ad. I couldn’t stand the text moving around so much. It made my head hurt. I also didn’t care for the tone of the narrator’s voice. But was it worthy of such a big negative reaction? I’m not so sure. Nonetheless, if you’re going to create an ad that is for a targeted audience and all it does is alienate that targeted audience, that’s a pretty good sign your ad sucked.
I agree, it was the tone. The tone was not connecting with the intended audience at all. It seemed anti-baby wearing, or at least baby-wearing skeptical, but yet they want to appeal to baby wearing moms to buy their product?? It’s not smart marketing that’s for sure.
As a baby-wearing mom out of sheer desperation to get something done other than nursing 24/7 (LOL), I agree with the body pain but I hardly did it for any other reason than survival…through 12 weeks of “momma hazing” I could hardly have cared how I looked and what my baby-wearing appeared to the general public. It feels a little like when a condescending parent jumps on a trend and tries to be “cool” - it just seems more condescending.