Motrin Mom Mania And A Focus Group Of One

In post-presidential election America, it’s amazing to see what “news” is rushing in to fill the vacuum that’s been left. Case in point?

Apparently, the spot was released as an attempt at a viral video timed to coincide with Babywearing Week. I haven’t confirmed if it was released on Motrin.com since the site is currently is in full-on “fail whale” 404 status.

While my delicate sensibilities as a dad and, on the rare occasion, former slingwearer were not damaged, I had to get the unbiased opinion of the missus. While our kids were in the nursing and slingwearing stage, she would medicate her aches and pains with Motrin and the occasional glass of red wine.  The first gasp came at the :14 mark with line “Supposedly, it’s a real bonding experience.” The are-you-fucking-kidding-me? moment came at :37 with “Plus it totally makes me look like an official mom.” After a moment of stunned silence, my wife’s first reaction? “You need to forward that on to R.,” who happens to be our good friend and a licensed lactation consultant.

And that in a nutshell, boy and girls, is what happened on Twitter this past weekend en masse and also inspired a 9 minute protest response video. Forrester analytst Jeremiah Owyang has tracked the backlash by the numbers and the chatter paints an interesting story in and of itself. The tempest in the proverbial baby sling, if you will.

For the most part, I find myself on Steve Hall’s side of the fence in terms of reaction. After all, there are so many more important things to find “offensive” in this world… war, hunger, the raping of our environment, the fact that Carl Peterson is still the general manager of the Kansas City Chiefs. Instead, I just find the effort lazily ignorant. While the spot was designed to appeal to soccer mom, in the processs they pissed off alpha mom, who is incredibly wired in terms of her online communication habits and is highly likely to create the sort of groundswell both for and (in this case) against your brand.

So the final thing my wife said to me before she headed off to work this morning?

“If I get a headache today, I’m totally taking a fucking Tylenol.”