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Babywearing International’s Response to Motrin
The Motrin ad campaign couldn’t have come out at a worse time for
Babywearing International, a non-profit group dedicated to babywearing advocacy and education. It is The International Babywearing Week, and their organization has been focusing on celebrating, promoting and advocating the many benefits of babywearing during this time. Part of this has been a media outreach and educating people about the facts of babywearing.
Babywearing International sent the following response concerning the Motrin mom-alogue campaign to McNeil Consumer Healthcare on November 17, 2008:
Kathy Widmer
VP of Marketing - Pain, Pediatrics, GI, Specialty
McNeil Consumer Healthcare
Dear Ms. Widmer:I am Susie Spence, president of Babywearing International, Inc., a nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote babywearing, with benefits for both child and caregiver, through education and support. I write to you on behalf of the Babywearing International Board of Directors concerning the mom-alogue advertising campaign for Motrin, which purports to be from the point of view of a babywearing mother.
We are deeply troubled by this campaign for the following reasons:
- It disparages babywearing mothers by portraying them as victims of a painful fashion trend;
- It falsely states that baby carriers “put a ton of strain” on the wearer’s back, neck, and shoulders;
- It falsely implies that mothers who wear their babies “cry more” than those who don’t;
- It portrays the research-proven benefits of babywearing as rumor or speculation subject to doubt;
- It disparagingly implies that babywearing mothers look “tired and crazy;” and
- It was timed to run during International Babywearing Week, November 12-18, 2008, when nonprofit babywearing groups all over the world are celebrating babywearing, and thousands of volunteers are working to publicize the benefits of babywearing and to encourage the practice of babywearing.
Just as we are working to create community support for this beneficial practice so that no parent will ever again be harassed or ridiculed for babywearing, McNeil is perpetuating an image of babywearing parents as silly people who make irrational choices to be in fashion. Your “mom-alogue” could hardly be more ill-timed, off-base, or damaging to babywearing parents or to parents who have yet to reap the benefits of babywearing.
While we do sincerely appreciate that McNeil Consumer Healthcare is not so crass a corporate citizen as to continue showing the mom-alogue on the Motrin website in the face of the uproar it created on social networking sites and through email, merely discontiuing the campaign is no step toward repairing the damage it has caused and continues to cause.
Babywearing International, Inc., calls upon McNeil Consumer Healthcare to counter the effects of this offensive ad campaign in the following ways:
- Completely discontinue the campaign by not allowing any further publication of it in any media;
- Undertake an equally prominent campaign that portrays babywearing mothers as the savvy parents and consumers they actually are;
- Undertake an equally prominent campaign that explains the proven benefits of babywearing and directly counters the portrayal of babywearing as painful or as a practice that makes babywearing mothers cry;
- Undertake a campaign to educate healthcare providers as well as patients about the research-proven benefits of babywearing. In fact, babywearing makes mothers more confident and results in fewer tears for both mothers and children.
Recognizing that Motrin is a brand that has heretofore been mother-friendly as well as child-friendly, Babywearing International would consider assisting Motrin in partially repairing the recent damage to its image by having Motrin’s collaboration in our Medical Outreach Campaign, through which we provide research-based information to medical doctors, counselors, and parents concerning the health benefits of babywearing.
Most sincerely yours,
Susie Spence
President
Babywearing International, Inc.
www.babywearinginternational.org
Looking forward seeing what happens next.
Links:
More about Babywearing at Adventures in Babywearing
Motrin Heard the News *UPDATED*
It has been interesting to see how this has been unfolding today.
My YouTube video has gotten over 2500 views, my blog posts mentioned at Peter Shankman’s blog, and at Mashable, written by Sarah Evans. Laura Fitton of Pistachio Consulting posted my video, so did 5 Minutes for Mom. And over 60 blogs blogged about it today and linked to Skimbaco Lifestyle.
A lot of upset moms.
Bad PR.
And silence from Motrin - until just an hour ago, when Motrin.com was taken down - for little upkeep called taking the ad down.
I also just received an email from Kathy Widmer, Vice President of Marketing for McNeil Consumer Healthcare.
Dear Katja -
I am the Vice President of Marketing for McNeil Consumer Healthcare. I have responsibility for the Motrin Brand, and am responding to concerns about recent advertising on our website. I am, myself, a mom of 3 daughters.
We certainly did not mean to offend moms through our advertising. Instead, we had intended to demonstrate genuine sympathy and appreciation for all that parents do for their babies. We believe deeply that moms know best and we sincerely apologize for disappointing you. Please know that we take your feedback seriously and will take swift action with regard to this ad. We are in process of removing it from our website. It will take longer, unfortunately, for it to be removed from magazine print as it is currently on newstands and in distribution.
-Kathy
Kathy Widmer
VP of Marketing - Pain, Pediatrics, GI, Specialty
McNeil Consumer Healthcare
Great - looks like the clean up of the mess has started, and so far done right. Looking forward seeing what happens next.
Motrin’s website was down for good 15 hours, and now this message has replaced the ad:
This is a great start, and hopefully a wake up call, not just for companies involved but for the rest of corporate America. Companies need to be on social media, and communicate with their target market.
Even if people don’t agree that the ad was/wasn’t offensive (which by the way is a personal opinion, and same way that we can’t say someone is wrong because they don’t like tuna fish, you can’t say that moms who found this ad offensive are wrong), the fact reminds that it took 24 hours from Motrin to response anything to those who were offended. Many in social media think 24 hours is a long time to response, we are used to instant gratification, but for a company who isn’t involved in social media, it was some what impressive to get any type of response within 24 hours and on a Sunday evening.
Motrin Makes Moms Mad
Dear Motrin Marketing Team,
I am hoping you will feel our pain, and you have enough Motrin to survive the Motrin babywearing campaign headache you will be feeling in the next couple of days, maybe even weeks. I am truly sorry if someone looses a job over this, but frankly, this would have been easily avoided - by asking a few babywearing moms, what they thought of your babywearing = pain ad.
Me and several other moms in the online communities were offended by your ad targeting moms, which said:
Wearing your baby seems to be in fashion.
I mean in theory it’s a great idea.
…
And who knows what else they’ve come up with. Wear your baby on your side, your front, go hands free.
Supposedly, it’s a real bonding experience.
They say that babies carried close to the bod tend to cry less than others.
But what about me? Do moms that wear their babies cry more than those who don’t?
I sure do!
These things put a ton of strain on your back, your neck, your shoulders. Did I mention your back?!
I mean, I’ll put up with the pain because it’s a good kind of pain; it’s for my kid.
Plus, it totally makes me look like an official mom.
And so if I look tired and crazy, people will understand why.
The advertising video started a discussion on Twitter.com, and in the mommy blogging community. Jessica Gottlieb recommended using a #motrinmoms hashtag for the discussion and “a few hours and two thousand tweets later #MotrinMoms is the #1 search on Twitter, eclipsing SNL for the first time since Obama was elected” .
I asked my followers on Twitter what they thought of the the ad:
And the responses were flooding… I wanted to collect the message for Motrin, but unfortunately YouTube lets you make only a 10 minute video - and I couldn’t fit every comment for the ten minutes!
Here is only a short list of blog posts covering the Motrin ad fiasco:
Motrin’s New Ad Attacking Babywearing
Motrin Ad Bashes Baby Wearing
Motrin the Anti-Mom
Twitter Moms Uproar Over Motrin Video
Twitter Crouwd Isn’t Inviting Motrin Moms to Their Playdate
Motrin Moms React
And since it is 4 o’clock on Sunday morning when I’m writing this (it sucks that bad PR happens when the marketing team has a day off, doesn’t it?) , I’m keeping my marketing advice simple:
1. Always know your target market.
2. If you don’t know your target market - hire someone who does. For example, when marketing to moms - ask moms!
3. Don’t underestimate the power of the synergy of blogging communities like mommy bloggers.
4. You have to be using social media so you can monitor and take control when something like this happens. Monday morning is not fast enough. Everyone will know your story told by someone else but you by noon on Sunday.
The good news is, that any company marketing to moms can achieve amazing results by the help of the moms & the mommy blogging community. The ways companies can do this:
1. Hire a Chief Mom Officer, who knows the target market & marketing. Or hire Mom Experts to answer your questions how you can reach moms. (Motrin: hire a Chief Mom Officer, soon launching MomForce will be a great source)
2. Ask what you can do to moms, not what moms can do for you.
3. Show that you genuinely care, start a conversation and listen the answers your target market is giving you.
Written by Katja Presnal
Mommy Blogger
PR / Social Media Marketing Consultant
Mother of Three
katja dot presnal at skimbaco dot com
Tele Class How to Make Money with Holiday Gift Guides UPDATE
Our live Tele Class How To Make Money With Holiday Gift Guides was a huge success! Thank you so much for everyone who participated.
I was in the telesales conference, thank you so much for doing that. Since I am new to doing reviews, it was very helpful, and not just for setting up my holiday gift guide.
Sheri, Unexpected Bliss
Since the class was so popular we are now offering it as a recorded version you can take any time.
Here is more information about the Tele Class:
Delivered as a downloadable MP3 file and an information full email.
You will learn in this class:
- How to build a Holiday Gift Guide
- How to use Wishpot.com for making it easy to build your guide and promote your guide
- How to use affiliate programs
- Why pictures are important
- What is the difference between a Shopping Guide and a Gift Guide
- How to promote your Holiday Gift Guide
We are hosting a Virtual Holiday Gift Guide Party on Cyber Monday and all class participants will be featured.
Cost: $20
PAY NOW:
You can pay securely through PayPal, make sure we have your correct email address. The recorded class and the information packed email will be sent to you within 12 hours of your payment. To speed up the process - send a direct message to @katjapresnal or comment here.
Tele Class for Bloggers: Make Money with Holiday Gift Guides
Me and Christine Young of the successful blog From the Dates to Diapers and beyond are offering you a fun and useful tele class on how to make Holiday Gifts for your blog and how to make money with them.
Social shopping site Wishpot.com makes making holiday gift lists easy for anyone, but Wishpot wish lists are also a great tool - let us tell you how we use Wishpot in building our Holiday Gift Guides!
We are not just sharing you all our best tricks and tips how we make money with Holiday Guides, but we also will help you to sign up with right affiliate programs, and help you to promote your holiday gift guide. We will be hosting a Virtual Holiday Gift Guide Party on Cyber Monday, when all the participants of the Tele Class will be hosting a giveaway to promote the launch of the Holiday Gift Guide.
Here’s the UPDATED kicker:
we will help you to find a sponsor for your giveaway! We guarantee a giveaway prize for your blog. AND *just in* your Holiday Gift Guide will be featured in Wishpot.com!
Here is more information about the Tele Class:
WHEN: Thursday November 13, at 10 AM PST / 1 PM EST
You will learn in this class:
- How to build a Holiday Gift Guide
- How to use Wishpot.com for making it easy to build your guide and promote your guide
- How to get paid for your Holiday Gift Guide
- Why pictures are important
- What is the difference between a Shopping Guide and a Gift Guide
- How to promote your Holiday Gift Guide
Included in fee: promotion for your holiday gift guide, inclusion for Virtual Holiday Gift Guide Party with giveaways and a free giveaway gift to give to your readers!
We are hosting a Virtual Holiday Gift Guide Party on Cyber Monday and help you to find a giveaway gift to give out to your readers on a giveaway starting on that day.
Cost: $20
PAY NOW:
You can pay securely through PayPal, make sure we have your correct email address, the details for the tele class will be emailed an hour prior the event.
The event will be hosted at Conference Call University.
And make sure to tell your blogging friends too - the more bloggers we get to our Virtual Holiday Gift Guide Launch Party, the better visibility we all get! Get the banner code here!
Nikki’s Spot at Babyspot
BabySpot just recently posted a job opening for Chief Mom Officer and they just announced their newly hired Chief Mom Officer, Nichole Smith, or Nikki, as many know her. Nikki is a professional writer and a blogger of Chaos in the Country. I had an opportunity to have a little chat with Nikki while she was preparing for her first BabySpot Ustream Show called “Chatting with Charmed Mom”.
Katja: Have you always loved writing, or is it something you started after you became a mom?
Nikki: I’ve been writing since I was a teenager. I did your typical school newspaper and I also contributed some really twisted short stories to my high school’s fiction magazine. However, marriage and kids pretty much sidetracked me. I got back into writing in 2006 when I needed a way to deal with some changes that were happening in my life and blogging seemed so natural. I started my own blog Chaos in the Country and later started The Guilty Parent.
Katja: Now you do so much more than just write your own blogs though. Tell us a few places you have been writing in.
Nikki: I started building my portfolio as working as a content writer for SEO companies and
blog networks like Today.com. Now though, I write and blog for private clients as well as Life 123 and Female Forum. I’m also a contributor at Blissfully Domestic as well as an editor and writer for Type-A Mom. It’s been an amazing journey. I didn’t think when I started blogging I would be doing any of the things I am doing right now.
Katja: What is your best tip for other work at home moms, how to do it?
Nikki: I think you have to be very flexible and willing to roll with changes. I woke up this morning with one idea of what I was doing based on a schedule I had made on Sunday afternoon and so far, I haven’t even touched the schedule. If you aren’t able to leave yourself some wiggle room in the schedule or be open enough to accept that your days won’t be as productive as you’d have liked them to be, you’re setting yourself up to fail. I’m constantly re-evaluating where I want to go and what I want to do. But I’m also one of those people that when I plan too much, something gets dropped or left out. So yes, scheduling is important but being flexible is just as important I think.
Katja: I can relate to that! I like to make Plan A, B and C, which basically means I’m really flexible. Now, tell us about your new role at Babyspot.com.
Nikki: I’m the new Chief Mom Officer at Charmed Mom. My role though as the CMO is to help Babyspot find business partners that are like-minded in their vision of not only providing a safe and secure place for parents to network with each other, but to keep parents informed and educated on topics and issues that are of great importance to them as they navigate through the world of parenting. It is amazing to be part of the BabySpot family, because everyone is so amazing there.
Katja: I hear you will also be doing a weekly UStream show in your new position as the Chief Mom Officer. Tell us more about it and how and when we can tune in.
Nikki: We are hoping to make the ustream show a weekly occurrence where we are
going to talk to parents and BabySpot members about becoming more informed parents in regards to making their lives better, their children’s lives more fulfilled and hopefully a little easier in the process.
The show is called Chatting with Charmed Mom. For the first show, we are going to talk to Jessica Smith, the founder of Chief Mom Officer and a Chief Mom Officer herself for Wishpot.com We’ll talk a bit about becoming a Chief Mom Officer and give some information for those moms who would like the opportunity to be a Chief Mom Officer.
I’ll also be talking about what is new and changing at Babyspot.com. I don’t want to give everything away but in the next few months you’ll see us working closely with great organizations like the March of Dimes, Save Babies Through Screening Foundation, and The Cute Kid. We will also have a new look and some web 2.0 features that will allow parents to interact with everyone in the Babyspot.com
community as well as family and friends.
Looking forward following Nikki’s spot at BabySpot in the following months. Make sure to catch her Chatting with Charmed Mom show on Wednesday at 10 PM EST and visit BabySpot.com to see Nikki more in action.
Is Your Copy Sloppy?
“Our handemade cards are awesome. Seriously!
We put so much work into these cards and we have sooooo many colors.
We can do custom orders to. Just email us for an estimate by email.”
I recently saw this on a web site I won’t name. The site design was eye-catching and the product was unique and beautiful, but I felt myself hesitating to order it. It took me exactly one nanosecond to figure out why. This description offers almost no information, is full of errors, and sounds like it may have been written by a seventh grader (and that is almost an insult to seventh graders).
Of course, this is an extreme example, but take a little surf around and you’ll see—there is a lot of shoddy writing floating around the intertubes. Which is unfortunate, because engaging, readable web copy is one of the most important tools you have for promoting your product or service. And it really isn’t that hard to create.
Technology has changed the way we access and distribute information, but the information itself comes to us the same way it always has—through the written word. After putting so much work into driving traffic to your site, the last thing you want to do is frustrate and annoy your visitors by burying important information in a lot of unnecessary text or misspelling the name of your own product (yep—I’ve seen that too).
Do yourself a favor and take a second look at the copy on your site.
We editor nerds talk about the three Cs when we’re working to improve a piece of writing:
Is it clear?
Can a visitor determine with a quick glance what exactly your product or service is? Sometimes when you spend a lot of time talking to other people who do what you do, you get in the habit of using short-hand phrases and insider talk that can be confusing to a newbie. Has that sort of thing crept into your web copy?
Make an outline or a bullet-point list. What are the highlights? What absolutely must be included? What kinds of questions can you anticipate visitors will have, and how can you answer them right off the bat?
Is it concise?
Does your copy get right to the point or is it a touch on the wordy side? Almost no one can write tight, clever, effective copy on the first draft. Did you spend much time paring down your words with some revision? Are you trying too hard to shoehorn keywords into sentences where they don’t fit?
The best writing is concrete, lean, and vivid. Put your copy on a diet. Cut out the fat (boring adjectives, passive voice, long or complex phrases that could be replaced with something short and snappy). Keep only the words that are doing work. You’ll be amazed at how much better the writing sounds when the ideas aren’t cluttered up with a lot of unnecessary filler.
Is it correct?
For the love of Pete, people—crack a dictionary. It was made for something other than propping up that wobbly table! Spell check is a good tool, but you can’t rely on it completely. Wikipedia, however, is a great electronic tool for grammar and punctuation questions. And please save the emoticons and chat-speak for…well, if you want to know what I think, you should save them until I depart from this planet, but that’s neither here nor there. In any case, they do not belong on a professional web site. Period.
Read over your copy before you post it. Read it out loud so you can hear how it sounds (this works like a charm to catch those errors your eye skips right over). Have a friend read it, or pay an editor for a half hour of her time. It will be worth every penny.
One final note that speaks to all three of the Cs: take a look at your design. Is your page bursting at the seams with information, images, and seizure-inducing graphics? Less is more. White space helps a reader isolate the piece of information he or she needs and digest it without getting distracted.
You work hard—represent that work to the world with professionalism and style! Happy writing, Ladybugs!
Guest Blog Post By Kelly O’Connor McNees
Kelly is a writer and editor. Check out Word Bird Editorial Services to see how she can help with projects big and small: www.wordbirdedits.com.
Want to Guest Post? Contact Katja Presnal
Six Tips to Take Your Vlog from Blah to Va-Va-Voom
Guest Post by Wendy Stetson from Babies Gotta Have It, where she blogs and vlogs about must have products for babies. Wendy’s blog is one of the most unique baby product blogs out there, and her video blogs make her site to stand out. See the difference yourself. Would you rather read the text or watch the video?
I haven’t been vlogging for long. Just a couple of months, in fact. I have, however, been standing up in front of people and saying things for small amounts of money for more years than I’d like to say, and on occasion I have been filmed not saying things for larger amounts of money. So I have given some thought to the way in which a person presents herself to the world. What I mean to say is I may be a newbie to vlogging but I’ve got some game.
So here is what I’ve learned about vlogging in the last four months.
1. Shorter is Better. There’s just no way around this. Edit yourself when you speak as rigorously as you would when you write. I struggle with this one on every post because I’m so convinced that what I have to say about bottle cleaners is vital to the nation. But nine times out of ten, I choose the shortest take to publish. Time is money, and in the age of the 60 second sound bite no one wants to listen to you drone on for thirteen minutes about potty training. Which leads me to…
2. Content Matters. You may be terribly charming. You may be drop dead gorgeous. Your friends may even think you are funny. But when you put yourself out there in the world and ask people to listen to you speak, you better have something to say. At least until you’re a celebrity. Then you can talk for hours about very inane things and people will nod their heads earnestly and call you brilliant and insightful.
3. Wear Makeup. Unless you are Rosie O’Donnell or Grace Kelly you need to slap on some lipstick and concealer before you break out the video camera. It takes a lot of product to make it look like you just stepped out of the shower looking like yourself.
4. Pay Attention to Lighting. And setting. And sound. We can’t all have professional lighting and camera equipment. And perhaps that’s part of what we love about vloggers. They look like they just pulled out the camera, held it in front of their faces, and started to rant and roll. But if you the viewer can’t see you, or hear you, or focus on what you are saying because of the cat throwing up a hairball on the sofa behind you, then the viewer will go elsewhere. And there are so many places to go in this big bad internet we’re creating, that you can’t risk giving your viewers one more excuse to leave.
5. I Talk Out of the Side of My Mouth and Squint My Left Eye Weirdly. Especially when I’m not totally relaxed. There is nothing like seeing yourself on camera to make you feel so self-conscious, so inarticulate, and so riddled with bizarre tics that you feel you must commit yourself to some kind of center. Take a breath. Remove hands from in front of face. And look with a generous heart. So you talk out of the side of your mouth? Is it so odd that it makes it difficult for the viewer to concentrate on what you’re saying? Yes? Then work to relax and let it go. Is it just charming and unique and part of what makes you you? Then embrace it. We can’t all be Gwyneth Paltrow. It’s ok. That would be an awfully blonde and boring world.
6. Be Yourself. This is the hardest one. Speak with your voice. Not to get all oogley-boogley and Oprah on you, but say your truth. You know when you watch a TV show or a movie and you think, “dude that guy is such a bad actor. I could do better than that any day of the week, and I haven’t acted since the third grade!” At that moment, your inner truth-meter has gone off. We all have them. It’s why we all are critics of TV and movies but maybe not art or music. We know human truth when we see it. And we know it on the web as well. Vloggers: be yourself. As fully and truthfully as you can. And stop trying so hard.
So there you have it. Six basic tips that will make you more watchable, your vlog posts more compelling, and hopefully increase the number of viewers who “just watch it”. As a vlogging newbie I cannot say that I execute all six of these commandments with any kind of consistency or aplomb. I’d like to work to make all my posts three minutes or less. Okay two minutes or less. I’d like to talk out of my entire mouth and open my left eye on occasion. And I could sure as heck use a lot more concealer and much better lighting. But when all else fails, vlog with an impossibly cute baby on your lap, wiggling her toes and saying “baa.” That’s one way to ensure that no one will be looking at you!
