Motrin Gets a Headache while Ford needs no new media bailout

This month has been an interesting one in the New Media world. In the early part of the month, Motrin was attacked by an army of Mommy Bloggers and Mommy Twitterers. Motrin ran an ad online with corresponding print campaign discussing “baby wearing” – the practice of putting babys in packs, slings and other devices to help moms carry them. The premise was “this can hurt your back – try Motrin.” The actual execution to me was tone deaf, but to many Mom bloggers and Twitters was offensive. The traffic started to grow on Twitter, with links to posts from Mommy bloggers expressing outrage at the perceived slight. There was even a 9 minute YouTube response with pictures of moms carrying babys and Twitter posts. This all happened on a weekend, but by Sunday night, Kathy Widmer, VP of Marketing had taken down the ad and replaced it with an apology. I’ll get to my take on that response in a second. Continue reading