Motrin causes web and self headache

+ A new campaign for Motrin that launched recently targets Moms, and attempts to be funny, but instead has angered quite a few.
This spot was on their website until it got pulled last night/today (no idea if it's intended to be web only):

Read more about it and the reactions at Mashable.com, marketingpilgrim.com, and of course, on Twitter.

I also came across this video of snippets of people's tweets from the weekend:


Motrin has already done the apology email. You can check it out here.The reactions range between thinking the apology is a good first step to those who feel they knew what they were doing and the email was just lip-service.

I can see how the video might offend. The VO's tone is somewhat irritating to me, like she's trying to be super smug or whatever. Plus the tone of some of the lines could have been shifted to be more tongue in cheek and probably get more across the initial concept that the CW & AD had in mind. I have to wonder how much the words got modified that might have effected the way it was interpreted by the target audience. Was there an earlier draft that wouldn't have caused such a hubbub? Possibly. Only the client and agency would know.

In the end, we'll have to see if this baby-carrying, motrin storm will quickly blow over, and what effect it will have on the brand ever trying to do some ads with attitude again. Hopefully they won't give up but be more mindful - which will most likely result in over-testing of creative and putting on the cautionary blinders.