{"id":279,"date":"2008-11-17T12:24:17","date_gmt":"2008-11-17T19:24:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.talesfromthe.net\/jon\/?p=279"},"modified":"2008-11-17T12:24:17","modified_gmt":"2008-11-17T19:24:17","slug":"motrinmoms-from-twitter-to-the-ny-times-in-24-hours-all-hail-the-power-of-mommybloggers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/2024.thenexus.today\/index.php\/2008\/11\/17\/motrinmoms-from-twitter-to-the-ny-times-in-24-hours-all-hail-the-power-of-mommybloggers\/","title":{"rendered":"#MotrinMoms: From Twitter to the NY Times in 24 hours."},"content":{"rendered":"

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Katja Presnal’s Motrin Ad Makes Moms Mad<\/a><\/p>\n

Motrin’s “viral” video making fun of babywearing mothers — timed for the start of International Babywearing Week — has, much to their PR firms amazement, led to a backlash.\u00c2\u00a0 As Allyson Kaplan’s Motrin’s Pain: Viral Video Disaster<\/a> on Fast Company’s Radical Tech <\/em>describes:<\/p>\n

The viral video worked in the sense that it went viral but not in the way the marketers of Motrin were hoping for. Just hours after the campaign launched moms began blogging, tweeting and posting Facebook updates about how offensive the new Motrin campaign is to mothers. Women were so angered by the video that it became one of the most popular subjects tweeted about this weekend on Twitter. Talk about a PR disaster. Over 100 blogs featured headlines such as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Motrin Makes Moms Mad\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Motrin Giving Moms a Headache\u00e2\u20ac\u009d.<\/p>\n

Tweets on Twitter are flying across the screen by the second using the hashtag #motrinmoms<\/a>. Tweets read \u00e2\u20ac\u0153RU FREAKING KIDDING ME? So many things wrong with that I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know where to start,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said @thecouponcoup<\/a>. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I am shocked by that Motrin ad. Count me in on the boycott,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said @blondeblogger<\/a>. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153They totally do not get us at all,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said @DealSeekingMom<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Gosh.\u00c2\u00a0 Who’d a thunk it?<\/p>\n

Heather Chapman’s Moms outraged over Motrin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s new ad<\/a> on The Mother Tongue has a nicely-highlighted version of the script*:<\/p>\n

I mean, in theory<\/strong> it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a great idea….
\nSupposedly<\/strong>, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a real bonding experience.
\nPlus, it totally makes me look like an official mom<\/strong>.
\nAnd so if I look tired and crazy, people will understand why.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sarah Evans Motrin Moms: Social Media Fail Whale<\/a> on Mashable, <\/em> Andy Beal’s Motrin Faces Twitter Headache Over New Video Campaign<\/a> on Marketing Pilgrim<\/em> (with great comments including BigDaddy’s description of the likely “creative” process) have some good commentary on this as well.<\/p>\n

Strangely, a lot of guys (and some women as well) don’t see why moms might be offended by this.\u00c2\u00a0 Dave Winer, for example, posted repeatedly on Twitter, calling the reaction “nonsense”, “inappropriate”, and “stupid<\/a>” before looking like a tired, crazy, official guy line by pointing out that “men are victims of sexist ads too”.**\u00c2\u00a0 Whatever.<\/p>\n

And I’m not sure if Amber Bryer-Wotte’s Profiles In Overreaction: #MotrinMoms<\/a> on Culture11’s LadyBlog <\/em>is typical of cultural conservative reactions,*** but I found it equally revealing.\u00c2\u00a0 For example:<\/p>\n

Another complaint is that the voiceover in the ad says wearing a baby sling makes her feel like \u00e2\u20ac\u0153an official mom.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d This too is the source of much outrage.\u00c2\u00a0 But for pete\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sake, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m 29 and I still don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel like an official grown up<\/em>, much less can I conceive of myself as an official mom….<\/p>\n

Here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what bugs me most: If you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re on twitter, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re a.) probably a youngish mom and therefore probably share some of my own insecurity about being a grown up and parenthood and b.) pretty clearly someone who wants to be considered trendy.\u00c2\u00a0 Get over yourself.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A dad in the comments helpfully adds “Unfortunately it impossible to not piss of moms, bloggers, or women with the hormones that result from pregnancy, delivery, or breast feeding. If you acknowledge them you upset them. If you ignore them you upset them.”\u00c2\u00a0 Nice.<\/p>\n

More positively, Lisa Belkin’s Moms and Motrin<\/a>, in the New York Times’ Motherlode <\/em>blog, quotes advice<\/a> from Peter Shankman, who she describes as “a public relations all-star who knows everything and then some about new media”:<\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not siding with Motrin. They messed up, granted. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m ok with that. Companies mess up all the time. They fix the problem, and it usually doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make the radar screen. The problem is, Motrin happened to mess up at the expense, and in the face of, one of the most vocal, quickest-to-blog, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153strongest-to-band-together-and-form-one-opinion-like-the-Borg\u00e2\u20ac\u009d collectives out there – The Mommy-Blogging community.<\/p>\n

Now I am NOT slagging on Mommy-Bloggers. Not in the slightest. Nor, am I saying they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re over-reacting to the commercial, which, by rights, was stupid and patronizing. What I AM saying though, is that Motrin will pay a MUCH bigger price, as opposed to if they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d messed up in front of say, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Construction-Worker-Bloggers.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Mommy-Bloggers are not a voice to be messed with, probably because they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re one of the most clearly identifiable voices on the web.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Indeed. Companies do repeatedly “mess up” with ads that disrespect and condescend to women.\u00c2\u00a0 While Peter might be okay with that, others aren’t.\u00c2\u00a0 Using social networks like Twitter, communities like “Mommy-bloggers” can respond swiftly and firmly — and, as the examples I’ve linked to illustrate, quickly get coverage beyond “the usual suspects” and into tech, marketing, and mainstream media blogs. \u00c2\u00a0 Other pro-woman, feminist, and womanist activists are presumably watching and learning.****<\/p>\n

Lisa’s NY Times post also has an update from Kathy Widmer, a VP of Marketing at McNeil (the Johnson and Johnson subsidiary that makes Motrin), apologizing and expressing regret — and apparently this has gone out to the various bloggers as well.\u00c2\u00a0 Motrin and their PR agency may well be able to react effectively enough to keep this from permanently damaging their brands … we shall see.<\/p>\n

In any case, whether or not guys land cultural conservatives like it, this is a powerful testimony to the power of social networks for rapid action.<\/p>\n

From Twitter to the New York Times <\/em>in about 24 hours.<\/p>\n

All hail the power of Motrin Moms!<\/p>\n

jon<\/p>\n

* Update<\/strong>, 1:15 p.m.: actually it seems that the highlighted script was first published by Barb on Perfectly Natural Photography<\/em><\/a> — in a post that also has a very good link roundup.<\/p>\n

**\u00c2\u00a0 Thanks for sharing, Dave.\u00c2\u00a0 I must have missed the memo appointing you as the arbiter of what moms should and shouldn’t care about.\u00c2\u00a0 Y’know, at some point, people are likely to start asking whether your sexism introduces biases as well on other topics where you also see yourself as an expert.\u00c2\u00a0 But I digress.<\/p>\n

*** Update<\/strong>, 1:55 p.m: Oops.\u00c2\u00a0 While Culture11 focuses on cultural conservatives, Amber’s a libertarian; see the discussion in the comment thread.\u00c2\u00a0 Apologies to Amber for the misdescription.<\/p>\n

**** I hope civil liberties activists are as well: Twitter Vote Report also got traction with Momsrising and other Moms who blog, and as Motrin’s headache indicates, they’re a force to be reckoned with.<\/p>\n

Originally published November 2009 as “MotrinMoms: From Twitter to the NY Times in 24 hours.\u00c2\u00a0 All hail the power of Mommybloggers!”.\u00c2\u00a0 In February I just discovered PunditMom (aka Joanne Bamberger’s) Don’t call me a mommyblogger<\/a> on <\/em>ZDNet, with a great explanation of why “mommyblogger” comes across as an insulting term.\u00c2\u00a0 My apologies to anybody I offended by my use of the term, and I’ll avoid it in the future.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve edited it a few times since to remove other lingering uses the term.
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Katja Presnal’s Motrin Ad Makes Moms Mad Motrin’s “viral” video making fun of babywearing mothers — timed for the start of International Babywearing Week — has, much to their PR firms amazement, led to a backlash.\u00c2\u00a0 As Allyson Kaplan’s Motrin’s Pain: Viral Video Disaster on Fast Company’s Radical Tech describes: The viral video worked in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,13],"tags":[25,148,224,225,325,378],"class_list":["post-279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-political","category-social-computing","tag-activism","tag-feminism","tag-motrins-headache","tag-motrinmoms","tag-social-networks","tag-twitter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/2024.thenexus.today\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/2024.thenexus.today\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/2024.thenexus.today\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/2024.thenexus.today\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/2024.thenexus.today\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/2024.thenexus.today\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/2024.thenexus.today\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/2024.thenexus.today\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/2024.thenexus.today\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}