MotrinMoms

If you have been paying attention to the Social Media buzz of the week, I'm sure you have all heard about the MotrinMoms controversy.

If not, here is a short recap:

Johnson & Johnson product, Motrin, offended mothers and fathers with an online and print ad which claimed that moms who carry their babies around with baby body carriers might possible suffer from back pain.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmykFKjNpdY&feature=related

Do see a problem with this ad? Well, mothers on Twitter went absolutely crazy over this. They claim the ad implied that moms carry their babies as fashion accessories.

Take a look at some of the ANGRY Tweets!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhR-y1N6R8Q

Two days after the this ad rocked the social media world, Motrin removed the ad from their website.

Here is the official statement from Kathy Widmer, McNeil's VP of Marketing. This email was sent to those who wrote a letter of complaint.

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.

So what is your take on all of this? Do you think a focus group could have prevented this whole mess? What do you think of the response?

Click on these links if you are interested in learning more about this Social Media disaster

Advertising Age

http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=132622

Mashable

http://mashable.com/2008/11/16/motrin-moms/

USA Today

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/2008-11-18-motrin-ads-twitter_N.htm

How Will President Obama Use His Massive Social Media Influence?

This is a great follow-up article to my last post on Social Media and Politics. Thanks Mashable.


Hundreds if not thousands of observers have already noted the key role that the Internet and social media played in the successful campaign of Barack Obama. But when he’s President, how will he utilize the hundreds of thousands of MySpace friends, Facebook fans, Twitter followers, My.BarackObama.com members, and SMS opt-ins (just to name a few points of presence) to advance his policies and politics?

First off, Obama needs to decide that he wants to make social media tools a permanent part of his political strategy. This seems like a given – the tools he used (along with several new ones most likely) will certainly play a big part his 2012 re-election bid and that of whoever challenges him – but to-date, maintaining this massive social media program has been the role of volunteers and campaign staffers. MySpace and Facebook weren’t even a blip on the radar when Bush won re-election in 2004 – creating full-time positions within The White House to manage social media would be a first, but presumably, something we’ll soon see.

So far, Obama’s social media tools have been all about organizing campaigners and viral marketing. But now that he’s on his way to the presidency and no longer a campaigner, Tweets about upcoming rallies and embedding Obama speeches around the Web suddenly isn’t very useful. So how does he change the way he uses these tools once he’s in The White House? A few thoughts:

Calls to Service
Obama has often talked about a call to service during his campaign – things like expanding the Peace Corps and offering tax credits in exchange for public service. Why not allow users of MyBarackObama to utilize the platform to organize community service projects? Use Twitter and SMS to alert people to opportunities to give back in their own communities or when national tragedy strikes. Utilize Facebook to get the word out about charitable events. The tools and the users are already in place.

Rather than requiring people to be so proactive about doing good, Obama’s social media reach allows them to be reactive – staying informed of things going on in their communities, organizing people that can help, and then pitching in – all from the comfort of their personal computer.

Calls to Your Congressmen
With the shift of both The White House and Congress to a Democratic majority, you can expect to see lots of new legislation over the next four years. Obama’s social media platform offers an amazing opportunity to get people more involved in their government, by keeping them abreast of issues and urging them to contact their representatives to push policy forward.

After all – this is what representative government is supposed to be about – but, think about it, when was the last time you talked to your Congressman (or at least one of their handlers)? Obama can leverage social media to make people much more involved in the process of bills becoming laws, and encourage his supporters to pressure their representatives into supporting his policies.

Calls for Re-Election
Needless to say, Obama’s social media arsenal will soon need to be put to use for his 2012 re-election campaign. Campaigns for this past election started nearly two years ago, and that’s not likely to change in 2012 as Republicans look to gain back what they’ve lost. The key here is for Obama’s team to keep up with the new tools that will best drive enthusiasm and ultimately get people to the polls. Most of the tools that were so key in this year’s campaign didn’t even exist in 2004, and we’re likely to say the same in 2012 as we analyze the services the candidates are using to drive their online campaign efforts.

An Amazing Opportunity
In a quick poll of my Twitter followers, a few people immediately replied to my question of “how will Obama utilize Twitter?” with calls for more transparency in government. While I don’t expect to see tweets from @barackobama like “Reading the President’s daily briefing from CIA. Yikes!,” the opportunities outlined above would be game changing for America, and hopefully get us all – who are still clearly somewhat divided among party lines (53 to 46 percent is no endearing sign of unity in my opinion) – a bit more involved in our democracy.
http://mashable.com/2008/11/05/obama-social-media/