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Motrin Commercial Gives Me and Moms Headaches

From Guest Editor, Jeremy Greenfield

New moms are a friendly bunch. They’re tired, their skin is stretched to fugly levels, and they just passed something the size of a watermelon through an orifice the size of a grape. Yum. Needless to say, don’t mess with them. What was Taxi, New York thinking when it characterized newborns as fashion accessories and new moms as self-involved, baby-making trendsetters for its latest work for Motrin?

When the spot hit the airwaves this weekend, it was met with stiff resistance from mom bloggers (there’s an army of them out there) and mom Tweeters (this is an elite brigade in the army of mom). The Tweeting became so deafening that one of the angry moms put together a Ken Burns-style YouTube montage of all the angry Tweets. Move over “The Civil War” and “Jazz” and make room for Motrin Ad Makes Moms Mad.

And just how powerful was this shit-storm of mom vitriol? After two days of it, Johnson & Johnson, maker of this also-ran to Advil’s dominance, pulled the commercial campaign. As they should have: If there’s one thing you don’t want to do to a new mom, it’s insult (or even comment on) her motherliness. Momability, if you will. You think you know what’s best for their babies, Taxi, New York? You’re a freakin’ East Coast elite liberal creative firm that probably hasn’t cleaned one poopy diaper in your entire life. You wouldn’t know real good mommin’ if it spit on a paper towel and rubbed your dirty face.

So, the campaign has been pulled, J&J is begging forgiveness from mommy bloggy nation and all is now right with the world. Right?

WRONG.

Wrong, wrong, wrong. Taxi, New York knows mommin’ all too well. And so does J&J. I’m going to let you in on a little secret: There’s a reason Taxi used the same jarring, nausea-inducing creative style that it did for its latest Ford F-Series spots (footage not available on the web due to it sucks). That reason is, the commercial was meant to offend. It was meant to suck.

Motrin is ibuprofen, the same active ingredient found in Advil and many other over-the-counter painkillers. It’s a commodity. The only difference between Motrin and Advil is that Advil’s shell tastes kinda sweet, which I think we can all agree we love. Motrin could cease to exist tomorrow and the world would not be worse off. So what does J&J and Taxi do to break through, to show the world that they’re different? They annoy, they piss off, they get new moms PMSing so bad that they are begging their pediatricians for post-natal epidurals.

And here we are, all talking about it. All talking about Motrin. Could Taxi have succeeded any better than they already have? Based on their latest work, doubtful. So, new moms, you feel fat, you are fat, you’ve got stretch marks on your belly that look like a map of the Amazon basin, and you just passed something the size of a four-pound chicken through an orifice the size of a four-pound chicken’s asshole…calm down and take a freaking Motrin so we can all go on with our lives.

Jeremy Greenfield is editor of Post Advertising and a contributor to AdFreak, Adweek’s blog.

The Offending Spot:

Some Equally Offensive Print:

48 days ago / / Link

Comment

  1. hmph… dare i say it? I actually kind of like the ad! i think it’s catchy and fun to watch and – if their claims were indeed true, which many mothers insist they are not – then motrin for baby-carrying pains would indeed be a clever niche market to address, i’d imagine.

    but then again, i’m not a mother, so maybe i also don’t ‘get it’. (but mothers, have a sense of humor!) in any case, for the avg non-mother consumer, this catchy ad might get ME to pay more attn to motrin the next time i have aches & pains… so in that respect, for the non-offended, this might be a score for J&J and Taxi, NY!

    — random non-mother · Nov 19, 10:57 AM · #

  2. And, ooo, that cap fits…let them wear it.

    — Zack · Nov 19, 11:17 AM · #

  3. JG never ceases to amaze me with his humor…laughed out loud at my desk.

    — annie cooper · Nov 19, 11:40 AM · #

  4. Amid the barely concealed pregnancy/parenting agita and scandalous, I say scandalous!, jokes I think your point here is that this ad succeeds because “They annoy, they piss off” and thus get people talking about it?

    Really?

    This ad seems sort of tame, like a watered down version of something that once had some teeth. That some web savvy Moms jumped on it with both feet seems lucky for Motrin (in some ways) but think it says more about modern motherhood than the ad’s worth. Unless of course, the Tweeting moms are part of a guerrilla ad campaign, in which case my opinion of Motrin’s ad agency zooms skyward.

    Oh yes an a fully dilated cervix offers a 10cm clearance. A daunting passage for sure, but hardly the size of a grape.

    — miguelito · Nov 19, 11:41 AM · #

  5. Obviously, Miguelito, Taxi/Motrin did not mean to piss anyone off. It’s just a shitty ad. There’s no conspiracy. No intrigue. Just stupidity and a lack of talent. Are you happy now that you’ve ruined it for everyone?

    — jeremy greenfield · Nov 19, 11:53 AM · #

  6. The unrolling type is awfully familiar. There is another ad out there that looks exactly like this, except its for trucks. That said, I did not find the ad offensive or interesting. Trying to hard to be in tune with mom’s.

    — anthony castellano · Nov 19, 11:55 AM · #

  7. perhaps moms really are too sensitive. i don’t get why this could be offensive at all.

    — noname · Nov 19, 12:09 PM · #

  8. I carry my baby in a sling and find this ad to be incredibly offensive. How dare they look down upon me for loving and nurturing my child while they are still small enough for me to hold. I will never purchase Motrin again and I will twitter all about this just to let them know how furious I am. I might even update my facebook status with a rude message.

    — Media Rocks · Nov 19, 01:42 PM · #

  9. More power to you, Media Rocks. There’s no reason for you to buy Motrin ever if all yer looking for is ibuprofin. Try Advil or the generic brand provided by your local pharmacy. Tweet, sweet mommy…tweet your story to the world!

    — jeremy greenfield · Nov 19, 02:30 PM · #

  10. The typography treatment is pretty standard stuff, kinetic type has been done for decades and this was no new spin on it. The ads themselves are annoying on so many levels. The fake empathy oozing out of them is blatant. “We feel your pain” sounds patronizing at best. I applaud more copy in ads when it is done well, but this was just dumb. I agree with you 100% JG.

    — Paul Suggett · Nov 19, 07:35 PM · #

  11. Offensive or not offensive, Motrin achieved their goal of creating awareness. The fact that people are blogging and tweeting about the ad creates awareness for Motrin and over time, people are simply going to forget about the ad and just remember the brand. Just think, when you’re in a store, your head hurts like hell, and you’re in a rush to get something, you’ll grab the first brand you see. In this case, it’ll be Motrin.

    — Justin · Nov 20, 12:30 AM · #

  12. I always go generic to be honest. Not sure why people pay extra for the pretty packaging that they instantly dump in the trash.

    — paul suggett · Nov 20, 09:22 AM · #