The Motrin Ad

Okay, there is a storm in a teacup over this American ad. I simply put it down to flakey execution.

Motrin - a company owned by Johnson & Johnson that produces pain relief pills, has just pulled this ad after too many Mothers and Fathers complained about it.

Take a look.



Did you spot the offense? If not, I really suggest you watch it again.

So after a second time, can you see where the problem lies?
You can "see what they're doing" right? You can understand who they are targeting right?
So what's missing?

Better execution.

Their agency broke the golden rule: Keep it simple. They clogged us with all this rhetoric and fluff about nothing. Look at your target audience for this campaign: "Mothers". They need coherent information quickly to make decisive choices. Tell 'em it will reduce your pain, and they will buy it in droves. DO NOT talk about their image - they're already super conscious and senstitive about being a new mother. And do not blab on about nothing. If there's anything I've learnt from writing scripts for female audiences - get to the point, and fast.

The Vice President of Marketing posted this on their website shortly after the complaints came in:

With regard to the recent Motrin advertisement, we have heard you.

On behalf of McNeil Consumer Healthcare and all of us who work on the Motrin Brand, please accept our sincere apology.

We have heard your complaints about the ad that was featured on our website. We are parents ourselves and take feedback from moms very seriously.

We are in the process of removing this ad from all media. It will, unfortunately, take a bit of time to remove it from our magazine advertising, as it is on newsstands and in distribution.

Thank you for your feedback. Its very important to us.

Sincerely,
Kathy Widmer
Vice President of Marketing
McNeil Consumer Healthcare

And before you send me your thoughts - watch the following video to get some perspective.



If you are still truly offended - send your feedback HERE. If you have any other thoughts on this campaign, I'd love to hear about it.

Gmail gets better, bit by bit

Over the years of using Gmail, I've particuarly like their approach to introducing new technologies - that being, getting it right before jumping the gun.

Video chat has been around for a while now - I'm an avid user of Skype. Google introduced their chat and video application (Google Talk) as a standalone application a few years ago - but i was already going good on Skype, so there's been no need to change.

So today I get a notification that Gmail has introduced video chat. The timing is great. I've gotten used to the built-in Gmail instant chat box, which I frequently use to quickly chat to a friend or family member. They've simply extended on this, by adding video.

The quality is exceptional, audio fair and the ability to full screen the video puts it on par with Skype, and moreso brings forth the reality to anyone who has not yet been introduced to phone or video calling using the internet... that THE FUTURE is HERE!

So will I shift my video/audio chat needs to Gmail? Still the answer is no. I personally like Skypes standalone app, although I might give the standalone Google Talk another go... one day.

Here's the video from Serge at Google:

SPELL CHECK your website today.

How embarrassing. Click the picture to see the large screenshot.