Barefoot, Pregnant and in the Kitchen

That's how Moms used to be described. Today, everything has changed, with one small caveat: when they are in the kitchen, they're usually on the laptop - creating, communicating, connecting and collaborating with other Moms, friends, family members, business associates etc.

The incredible kerfuffle of late with Motrin highlights the chasm or disconnect between marketers (and their henchmen, Madison Avenue) and consumers. It's been widening for years now and I expect more of these "come to Jesus" moments to present themselves, at an increasing pace/rate, provided brands continue to whack their customers over the head with the blunt instrument called "advertising".

The story in 30-seconds :) is as follows:

• Motrin creates this ad

• Moms don't like it
• Twittering Moms in particular
• Mainstream media goes ga-ga
• Motrin caves, issues an apology (above) and pulls the ads (where it can)

A lot has been said about this experience already:

• Did Moms overreact? At the end of the day, it's not worth dignifying the drivel forced down our throats in the form of 30-second spots and the like, but it is everyone's right to react and have an opinion. Perhaps that's one of the important new lessons marketers need to learn....whether you like it or not, you'll hear from us. This is the new transparency.
• ...and in the process, do themselves a disservice by raising their collective ire and exposing themselves as a bunch of Prima donnas? Possibly, but not likely. I am always concerned that the entire blogosphere shoots itself in the foot when it critiques a lame blogger outreach program, a Second Life misadventure or a failed Facebook attempt. My fear is that we chase away curious and tentative marketers, looking to do more but afraid of the consequences of trying something new. That said, I always come back to this: the reason why these efforts fail is because they generally suck. Bringing this back to Motrin Moms, if this exercise has done anything, it's to drive home the fact Digital Moms are a powerhouse and need to be taken seriously - explicitly AND implicitly.
• Did Motrin overreact by pulling down their campaign? I'd say yes on many levels. There's a reason why the US of A does not negotiate with terrorists in the slightest. Of course, I'm not comparing "twittering Moms" to Osama Bin Twitter, BUT I think Motrin/J&J exposed itself as being anything on the continuum of spineless to wishy-washy (or is it flip-floppy) in the process. Motrin Moms (on Twitter that is) represent a tiny minority but Twitter is what I call a reach-activator (evidenced by all the mainstream media coverage, which arguably was the machine that created the critical hype in the first place). More importantly, perhaps they did Motrin a HUGE favor in the form of an advance warning. In any event, the spot is out there and will enjoy a tremendous Second Life of infamy, ironically boosted by the efforts of pulling down the spot. Whilst Ad Age argues that the total web (1.0 and 2.0) views is only a fraction of the actual media buy, I think this will change over time (esp. as the Long Tail begins to wag like mad). Also we're talking about potential versus actual views and I would suspect that when the reconciliation is ultimately done, pulling the spot will not have extinguished the headache...

Now some Jaffe commentary:

1. Motrin has a tiny ad budget and now, for the first time, people are talking about them. Genius? Fluke? Lemonade from Lemons? Something to think about.
2. Motrin's apology and subsequent updates have been plastered on their archaic (as in from the time of the Ark) website. On the one hand, it's admirable to devote prime homepage real estate to this admission of error, but come on sister....start a friggen blog already!!! It's staring at you in the face. Either way, her last update was 5 days ago, which in Internet time is like 5 years.
3. I guess my main point regarding this "migraine campaign" was the fact that the real offender(s) was not Twittering Moms and it was not Kathy Widmer. It was the status quo; it was the process itself which FAILED Motrin and surely will fail it's parent, Johnson & Johnson increasingly so if they continue to follow an outdated and flawed code of conduct. As long as advertising continues to generalize, stereotype, hype, exaggerate and oversimplify, it will not only continue to fail...but also backfire in the process.

Here are specific ways the process let them down:

• Strategic Planning/Insights - so Moms wear their babies; some say it's a fashion statement; some say it's a burden; some say it legitimizes them. Big deal. That's enough to create a bonding experience and connection with Moms? Give me a break
• Focus Groups - building on from the previous point, perhaps the problem (I wrote about this in Join the Conversation) is the difference between Late Majority/"average" Moms and Innovate consumers/Moms i.e. who are you talking to in these focus groups and how are you talking to them? The blogosphere is a real, live focus group and yet we continue to talk to real people through one way mirrors! Just because one Mom says it makes them feel official doesn't mean this should be regurgitated to the masses. I would say we've forgotten to listen, but truthfully I don't think we (as industry) ever listened to our consumers
• Creative - following on from the original point, simply restating verbatims does not a campaign make. In addition, the so-called irreverent tone and treatment in the spot came across as insulting, superficial and arrogant.
• Media - once dem spots are purchased, there's no going back. It might be possibly to splash an apology letter on a website, but everything else has a losing lead time associated.
• Account Management - could this not have been anticipated? Where was the contingency planning? What actually did Motrin do besides apologizing and taking the ad off the air? What about involving the SAME outspoken Motrin moms in the R&D/evaluation process the next time round?
• No conversational/communal activation - where was the seeding to high level influencers which arguably could have set off the fire alarms well in advance...

I'm going to try and reach out to Kathy and invite her on Jaffe Juice to talk about this. Of course Kathy, if you're reading this post itself, you're already moving in the right direction. Let's have a conversation, shall we?

Some links of note:

• Crashing Motrin-Gate: A Social Media Case Study
• Motrin Moms Twitterrage
• Motrin.com
• One of the primary catalysts, Jessica Gottlieb refuses to jump on the mob-wagon
• Queen of Spain blog (99 comments to date!) chastises Motrin Moms ("mobs") for tarnishing the image (and e-commerce implications) of this growing community/demographic