Motrin's Pain Might Be Their Gain

A week ago one of the most powerful organizations in America shut down an ad campaign. This is the same organization that used to terrify the country's largest corporations with their letter writing onslaughts:

Moms.

For over a century, moms have proven that the pen is indeed mighty. But the pen has been replaced by the tweet. What used to take months now happens in a weekend.

Ad Age reported that an ad campaign for the pain reliever Motrin struck a nerve with moms everywhere and the mommy blogs screamed loud via their Twitter accounts, ultimately resulting in the removal of the campaign.



The power of social media is indeed strong. But what I personally am most intrigued by are the steps that Motrin (and its parent company Johnson & Johnson) took to deal with the problem.

First, the moms united over the weekend and before it was over, Motrin had pulled the campaign.

Second, Johnson & Johnson took responsibility.

Third, Vice President of Marketing, Kathy Wildmer, immediately started apologizing to bloggers via email.

The power of moms’ use of social media removed this campaign, but let's not forget how Motrin used that same social media power to squelch this issue and show that they are a company that cares and listens to their customers.

This might just be one of those "all press is good press" moments.

If Motrin was hurting people, then utilizing social media to provide crisis management would not have been able to restore any public confidence in the short term. But this was a careless choice of words in an ad campaign, and although offensive, not harmful and not the direct result of a faulty product.

Moms: there is no doubt you are powerful. Nice work flexing your muscle and showing Motrin that you don't take kindly to their words.

Motrin: kudos to you for acting quickly, taking responsibility, apologizing and making it right, immediately.

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Ok, in all honesty, I wrote that blog a week ago. But there was so much written about it that I pulled it. It had started to be called "Motrin-gate," a sure sign that this thing had reached a level that was on par with... Nixon??? A bit too much if you ask me.

But today Ad Age published a follow up article.

BATAVIA, Ohio (AdAge.com) -- At first glance, it looks like Johnson & Johnson's Motrin was chastened by the power of social media when it yanked a Motrin ad campaign pilloried by mommy bloggers on YouTube and Twitter.

'Motrin-gate' proves the power of social media for marketers as well as how quickly marketers can be forced to buckle to a relatively small but vocal minority of people.

But as it turns out, J&J might have been a tad hasty in pulling down its ad. In doing so, it bowed to a vocal flash mob that represents a tiny fraction of moms, and Twitter, which itself attracts about 0.15% of the world's internet users each day, according to Alexa -- by the most generous possible estimate based on that data, about 1.1 million people in the U.S. And despite a storm of media attention, the ad -- together with a YouTube video put together by a mommy blogger on the controversy -- received less exposure than one 30-second spot on a cable news network

All I can say is to read this article. It will show you that yes, the power of Social Media is strong. But maybe a bit too strong!