EOC week 2: Ethics in commercials

“Online Moms did not respond to the ad by racing out for Motrin. They were offended by the suggestion that they carry their babies to be “fashionable”. They were outraged at the idea that they look “crazy”. They vehemently disagreed with the phrasing that “in theory” carrying your baby around is a good idea.”
(http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/17/moms-and-motrin/)

“So what’s the lesson here? Don’t assume you know what your target audience wants." (http://www.socalwife.com/motrin-baby-wearing-ad/)

“Offend mommy bloggers at your own peril. They can chew you up and spit you out in a day.” (http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2008-11-18/news/0811170682_1_moms-bloggers-sling)

Motrin advertising was such a big mistake, the commercial came out on a Saturday and by Monday blogger and twitter mom were furious about this commercial. They try to sell their product by sending out a message of “we understand all the moms out there and that they feel the pain” but they sure didn’t know how to delivered the message well. Their wordings in the commercial were so wrong that there is not even one part that makes sense. I am not a mom and when I first saw it, I was like “ this commercial better be fake!!! It’s upsetting” I can’t image how real moms felt when they first saw the commercial.

I don’t know what happen to McNeil Consumer Healthcare's when they were doing this ad, I ask myself what type of research marketing did they do? To not even get close of how the consumer would react to it. Did they even test the advertising with people that portray their target market for this ad? If they thought this ad was a funny way to approach moms and their back pains, well Motrin think again because this was just bad!!