How can the Motrin benefit from their advertising screw-up?

Use the very thing that bit them. Social Media. Let me explain.

So they totally screw-ed up. Motrin ran this ad on their site and moms around the world were offended (check out this blog from Sarah Evans) and struck back. Motrin brand managers quickly pulled the ad campaign and threw up an apology on the front page of the website. Check out the offending ad below.


And now there are parody ads coming to life so the viral aspect of this ad campaign has come to life and this ad will have a much longer campaign life then ever expected. I hope the appropriate people were fired...or not. Maybe this isn't such a big thing.

So how in the world can Motrin find any goodness in this PR mess? Well, now they know a lot of moms who are very passionate about themselves, how they are portrayed, and how they feel about their babies.

In fact, now a lot of people know who these moms are and all they have to do is a twitter search for Motrin, a blog search and google search and bam look at all these wonderful moms that I can put in a spreadsheet and try to reach out to when I have a new product offering.

I would use them as a connector focus group. I would send them special items, ask them to be involved with my products and brand, and treat them like the gold they are. That's what I would do if I was Motrin and/or anybody else looking to grab this influential group.

Just my two cents.