Posted on November 18th, 2008 by Craig Maltby, Editor
Motrin and the pain of mad mothers
This blog is relatively new to the social network scene. So I’m obviously learning as I’m going (and have 
received a lot of help from folks such as LavaRow and Remarkablogger in figuring stuff out). So, when I see news about a major over-the-counter pain reliever, Motrin, messing up in its latest online marketing effort, I say, “lord, let me learn from the big dogs.” The Wall Street Journal Health Blog has a story about how Motrin offended mothers far and wide who carry babies in body slings. It seems a Motrin online ad was a bit too smart-assed, to put it delicately, at least as viewed by a number of women. Many women uploaded their video complaints and boycott messages on YouTube. Motrin’s parent company, Johnson & Johnson had to react quickly.
To their credit, J&J didn’t try to BS their way out of an apparent misfire. The company pulled the ad quickly. They came out and said, “we screwed up, we’ll learn from this.” Good for them. Yet most of the comments on the story seemed to say, “What’s the big deal? You call that offensive?” I guess if enough customers complain and launch a global social media campaign against your product, it IS a problem and it tenders no time for Socratic debate. As one retailer taught me, “the customer may not always be right, be he/she is never wrong.”
Of course, not to be too blatant, but I would be remiss if I didn’t take this moment to advocate for immune balance supplementation as a potential health agent for moms who may experience extra muscle and joint strain from carrying their infants throughout the day. Just a thought, as they say.
