Revenge of The Babywearers

You’d hate to be the head of marketing for U.S pain-relief brand Motrin today.

Last weekend the brand posted a “webisode” on their site ridiculing babywearing as a trendy activity that causes back pain. Unfortunately, their little viral video caused instant consternation from Twittering mums, who called for the campaign to be pulled down.

Watch it below.

Astonishingly, not only did they pull the campaign down right away, the Vice President for Marketing was forced to send out a grovelling mass e-mail pointing out that she has three kids of her own:

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…

Talk about the power of the web.

Personally, I find the ad less offensive and more condescending. What mum wears a sling to be trendy? If it hurts to wear it you’re doing it wrong, or it doesn’t work for you and the baby. Take it off. We don’t need some huge conglomerate telling us how to make basic parenting decisions. And you know, dads wear slings too.

Do you think the protesters over-reacted?

[Source]