Motrin’s social media medicine

By on November 24th, 2008 In Social Media

You may have heard of this last week. Motrin’s baby-as-fashion accessory ad that created a lot of comment among moms in the blogosphere. (Background: See Josh Bernoff’s post)

The tweets, surveys, articles, and posts have not quite subsided. AdAge, just came out with a story on the social media angle.

Speed-of-reaction question. Considering how it’s so darn easy to offend someone with an ad, should a marketer respond fast, and possibly hastily, to outrage? If you recall just 6 months ago, Dunkin Donuts responded to a stupid attack by Michelle Malkin about an ad that purportedly used a ‘terrorist’ icon, a kaffiyeh.

Language question. Is the Johnson & Johnson statement apologizing for insulting moms and having missed the mark etc a good way to respond? I have some reservations, not about the language, but the format. But I like to hear the PR pros chip in on this.

Agency question: If you were Motrin’s agency, how would you have handled this client?

Comments

Linda Kaplan Says:
November 25th, 2008 at 3:09 pm

As the agency, before I had my client apologize, I would consider whether this was the beginning of a campaign involving incorporating the comments into a sequel or an internet conversation.

Add your Comment


Want Your Picture Icon? Go to gravatar.com and set a picture up to your email address for free. It also works on thousands of other websites, too!