Twitter vs. Motrin
Now that we have talked about how corporations have used Twitter to communicate with stakeholders and learned about the positive aspects of Twitter in relation to corporate communication, I would like to look at Twitter from a different aspect. In one very specific case, Twitter proved to hurt a company.
In November of 2008 a commercial for Motrin pain killers appeared on a the company’s Web site. The commercial is aimed at mothers experiencing back pain as a result of carrying their babies in slings. Here is the Motrin commercial:
The commercial was not received well by mothers. In fact, they were outraged by the language used in the advertisement. Mothers believed that the ad was mocking them with phrases such as “it totally makes me look like an official mom” when a mother carries a baby in a sling. Moreover, they were offended that the company would suggest that they “wear” their child because it is “fashionable”. Thus, moms responded…On Twitter. The day the ad was posted on the Motrin Web site it was the most tweeted subject on Twitter. One mother stay up until 4a.m. reading the plethora of angry messages. The next day her video appeared on YouTube compiling many of the tweets against Motrin:
Within two days the Motrin ad was pulled from the Web site, moreover an apology was posted on the Web site and an apology was sent to the outraged moms who spoke up. The apology e-mail explained that the company did not mean to offend mothers, and appreciated the feedback they received. On the company’s Web site, the vice president of marketing stated that the video will not be used in any future marketing. Good choice.
Feedback was key. Feedback clearly means a lot to many companies in such a media rich society. These mothers used the power and reach of microblogging flawlessly. Twitter allowed the company to see just how upset these women were. Their ideas were made public, and as each new tweet was posted, others instantly learned of their frustrations.
The lesson learned from this incident is that people want to participate. Everyone has something to say, and through the use of social media (for better or for worse) they can get that message out to millions…And millions may link to millions…And so on.
It is hard to tell if Motrin was severely hurt by this issue. However the truth is, several major publications such as The New York Times and The Chicago Tribune covered the story. Moreover, many mothers have sworn to never use the drug again. Therefore, in the long run this might be a bump in the road, but with the social media available today, the video will remain on YouTube for a long time, and the Twitter postings may haunt the company for much longer than they would like.
Filed under: Case Studies, Twitter | 4 Comments
Tags: Motrin, Twitter, YouTube
This post secures that Twitter is an effective tool for consumers to post problems with a company and for the company to listen and take part in the conversation and working to solve the constituents’ problems. In my opinion I think buyer brand loyalty might be the only thing working for Motrin at this point. I wonder if the folks at Motrin have lowered the price of the drug due to the effects of the advertisement and nasty Twitter “tweets”?
I think you’re right Kelsey, the mothers executing social media tactics did it flawlessly, and I think the video featuring the Twitter tweets proves it. My favorite tweets were the ones about the demographic and facts of the ad being totally twisted and inaccurate, which they were. I still can’t believe Motrin thought this ad was a good idea. I mean really Motrin, take a Tylenol; it’ll clear your head so you can focus less on the elaborate design of an advertisement and more on the actual message.
The case of Motrin and Twitter is fascinating to me. I believe that this illustrates both positive and negative aspects of social media. While Motrin had no intention of offending any moms, anyone on Twitter could read the scathing remarks about the ad. If they had not seen the ad, they may be unfairly swayed away from using Motrin in the future. This is something that companies must be aware of when creating advertisements. While a successful ad may generate more business, a negative one can just as easily kill your business. On the positive side, the company was able to pull the ad before more people could write negative responses. By swiftly pulling the ad, the company was able to come across as caring about their customers. With new social media making feedback immediate for companies, companies must continuously monitor the sites to keep events like this from hurting their image.
This was a great example of the ways that consumers can provide feedback to large companies through micro-blogging tools, such as Twitter. Twitter has created a forum in which users can tweet their opinions and concerns to over seven million users within minutes. Obviously, an the typical individual is not being followed by seven million users, but does create somewhat of a butterfly effect. One mother tweets a complaint > one of her followers agrees and decides she will tweet a complaint also > one of the second mother’s followers agrees and tweets a complaint and so on. Suddenly, there are thousands of mothers complaining and all one needs to do is do a Tweetsearch and pages of pages of tweets can be found regarding that particular Motrin commercial.
I feel like this situation is very similar to the “Dell Hell” that Jeff Jarvis created in the 1990s. The difference between Motrin and Dell is that Motrin recognized the implications that social media can have on a company and almost immediately responded. While I find the commercial incredibly offensive and the campaign sloppy and not well thought out, Motrin’s quick response did gain them some points. Pulling the ad and issuing an apology was the right (and necessary) thing to do. I hope that in the future more companies will recognize the importance of social media and pay closer attention to the conversations of their consumers.
Great comparison LeiLani. It is becoming increasingly common for corporations to blunder through ad campaigns because they do them more often than ever before. Now they have the advantage of recovering from them quickly and efficiently because of the instant responses. Prior to all of the connectivity corporations relied on consumer reports and revenue analysis. Now, within 24 hours of launching an ad Motrin because aware of the blunder. I would bet they responded so quickly because of other corporations not responding as quickly and personally, such as Dell.
I still do not like the concept of Twitter but this case study proved that it is a very useful tool to gauge consumer responses.