LOL. This is a sure sign that ad companies are desperate for revenue. They've run out of ideas to sell their clients shrinking, price increased products and now they're flailing around, trying to come up with the next big ad that ensures their jobs for another six months. And they don't have the backbone to tell their clients that the only real way they're going to gain market share in a recession is to either invest in R&D and come up with a newer / better product, or cut their prices.

LOL. "Tornado Girls". (That Ugly Betty episode is less than a week old and "Tornado Girls" is already sticking).

I'm a little baffled here -- are the "babywearers" offended by the campaign, or have they just been pointing out to Motrin how silly and inaccurate it is?

I am finding it hard to understand why anyone would be offended.

Seriously can anyone explain to me what was so horribly offensive about this ad?

@thewriteguy: Agreed. Unless they're really wearing it for the "fashion", and felt threatened being called out on it.

Well, if it hurts to "wear" your baby, you're either not doing it correctly, or you should try a different type/technique to fit your body size/type. I think that's part of why people are offended.

They ought to advertise this product to moms of toddlers who have outgrown the carriers.

Motrin would do better promoting itself as the recommended pain med for breast feeding mothers. [www.aafp.org]

Wow. I'm much more creeped out by the cheerful "I like crippling myself to feel close to my child" approach than I am about the specific babywearing thing.

It's more that Motrin has no clue what babywearing actually feels like. Carrying even a 25 lb kid in a sling beats toting a tiny infant in a bucket carseat. Carrying a kid without a sling is painful--it throws your hip off center.

Yeah, desperate is the right word.

Is it just me or is this commecial a blatant ripoff of those new Ford F150 commercials with Dennis Leary doing voiceover? Not sure how to imbed a youtube video here but if I did it would be down here
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I think this just goes to show that baby wearers are not only fashion conscious, but pretentious about their baby fashion.

Methinks they protest too much.

@thewriteguy:

You'd be surprised at how politicized child-rearing is these days. People are VERY oversensitive to anything suggesting they might be doing it wrong.

As a former babywearer, I'm not offended, but I think that the implication in the ad - that people do it because it's fashionable and so you can feel like an "official mom" - is way off base.

And, I might add, that depending on big your baby gets, it is not unrealistic to imagine that there might be some sore muscles after a while if you are carrying the baby for a long period.

I found the ad somewhat offensive. It implies that I use a carrier so that I look like an "official mom" and that it's so painful it makes me cry, but that we all just soldier through it for the sake of some mystical bonding experience.

The reason a lot of people are so ticked off is that the ad is just very misleading. I very happily used carriers with my son until I got too pregnant with the current bun in the oven ... they were a lifesaver! My husband and I have worn our son in various carriers to zoos, museums, dog parks, airports, etc. Neither of us ever experienced any sort of pain unless we REALLY overdid things.

The fact is, a lot of folks could benefit from using a carrier. Some babies -- well, a LOT of babies -- just like to be close to Mom or Dad, and it's VERY hard to get anything done. The concern for a lot of us was that this ad campaign could discourage people who might really be able to use a carrier from ever trying one.

@thewriteguy: It's the tone of the ad, which seems to be wink-wink, nudge-nudging that the babywearing is just for parent street cred and not because there are benefits that specific people who choose to do it see.

I don't see having an ad that supposed to be targeted as you coming off more as making fun of your decisions as oversensitive. They missed the mark. The ad was meant to coincide with national babywearing week in the US, and the very people that would care about that are the ones who felt the ad was condescending. Agree or disagree with that, but you have to admit that they failed miserably on reaching their intended target audience for the ad.

@Davan: i know what you're speaking of and agree

The F150 ad:

You're right--strangely similar ads targeting 2 totally different consumers

@Davan: The F150 ad is just a ripoff of a typographical animation someone did to Pulp Fiction:

This is offensive, and I'm not even a mom. It's implying that women or men who baby-wear are only doing it for looks. It's just really bitchy and sarcastic as well.

Nice use of type-in-motion, reminiscent of earlier videos like:

Creepy how at one part it refers to babies as "these things". (It could be interpreted otherwise, I know.)

Mothers have been carrying babies since near the beginning of being able to walk upright. Native and indigenous people don't do it for fashion, it's a means of transport where strollers don't exist.

@thewriteguy: You'd have to be a babywearer to understand why it stings so much. As a mother who chooses to wear my baby in a carrier for hour at a time, I've gotten a surprising amount of flack from my family as well as total strangers about what a strange practice it is. They say it is weird to have your baby "so close" to you, how I'm "spoiling" my baby by carrying her, etc. I recognize that babywearing isn't for everyone but it makes me bristle to see well known medicine claiming that babywearing is painful or only for fashion. It is not for fashion. It serves a practical and loving purpose -- it allows me to carry my child in various ways. She is a baby who is simply happier when carried. I believe in babywearing as the best way to hold my high needs child close for her development and for our bonding. Were I to hold her in my arms all day (and believe me, she'd love it), surely my arms would ache! But by carrying her in my carriers, I have arms free to go about my day, while she is happily attached. Babywearing is part of my daily life and something that makes me and my child very happy. That is why I am so offended by the commercial; it attacks and belittles a very important part of my life.

I'm gonna wear my baby like a human necklace!! ARRRGH!

So the ad is wrong. Do people need to really go crazy over being offended by it? No.

Oh so a Motrin ad makes you look bad, big deal. I am certain Motrin's sales wouldn't be hurt a bit if the "babywearers" never bought it again.

Motrin should just keep the ad and alienate baby wearers. Maybe I just want to see a company give the middle finger to an overly offended group of people for once. Motrin should release a more offensive ad in spite.

@fall_farewell: I don't think people are up in arms about the tone - it's just plain stupid. It's like advertising Motrin to a group of people who wear flip flops all the time because that's the style (remember the flop over the volley ball team that wore them when they had their portrait taken with the President?).

They're creating a negative image where there really shouldn't be one. Most ads are stupid to begin with. Targeting the babywearers incorrectly is just plain scraping the bottom of the barrel.

@thewriteguy: I'm offended by how annoying the commercial is.

As a non-babywearing non-mother who tends to mock silly trends trends herself, I thought this was another case of a people getting their feathers ruffled over some imagined slight.

Then I watched it.

Yeah but . . . it's still a load of weight that's offcenter from your body. It's going to cause pain or strain somewhere eventually. It's inevitable unless you've got a daily exercise routine that can straighten you back out.

My backpack is the most convenient way to carry some of my heavy stuff, and it distributes weight pretty well, but it does not make it disappear. I can feel full well that I'm off balance.

If you're carrying your baby, and you get some back pain, and you want some painkillers for it, get over yourself, and take some.

Dumbest thing to get bent out of shape about ever.

It might not be a huge deal but does that mean people shouldn't complain about it at all? It's not like they were carrying torches and pitchforks in front of corporate headquarters. They complained on Twitter.

As a graphic designer, I must say I really enjoyed watching the narrative typography animation in this video. Forget the message -- that was a cool video!

The ads maker should have looked at asian countries where this is not a fashion but rather the norm. It is the most convenient way to carry your baby second to pushing a stroller. And no, motrin is not the number one pain reliever sold in those countries.

I thought the ad was kinda cute. Maybe in reality those moms' backs hurt so bad they have become more easily offended.

i'd imagine that there are some people that do it for looks, the same way many people have taken up yoga and "don't eat red meat" because it's trendy.

@MrsLopsided: I cracked up when I saw the reference too. I hope "Tornado Girl" catches on.

@Vegconsumer: Yes, this. Combined with the increasing trend in pop culture/advertising to assume that there is no reason any woman would do anything except because of appearance/fashion concerns, the ad just grates. It's not the most wildly offensive thing I've ever seen by a long shot, but Motrin deserved the smackdown.

@fall_farewell: Apparently Motrin considered babywearers a consumer block worth going after, so if that block rejects them, it must matter to the company. I know that sometimes corporations are too quick to kowtow to offense -- remember the ridiculous cancellation of Rachel Ray's Dunkin Donuts ad because she wore a paisley scarf that sort of resembled, if you squinted, an Arab scarf? But when a corporation strongly targets a specific demographic group, they should try not to do it in a condescending way; if they flub it up, they have to take the hit.

I have to say, I babywear all 3 kids in various carriers, and it is much easier on the back once you are used to it than a stroller is. It's also much easier to get around in stores and what not. I haven't watched the ad, but it seems to be a stupid business practice to focus an ad at a specific group and then not preview that ad to that group before sending it to mass media.

Just my $.02 anyway.

I'm offended because it implies that moms are the only parent that wears the baby.

I used to carry my son around all the time in a Snugli carrier. I didn't feel any pain though. In fact it was quite comfortable.

@MrsLopsided:
Yes - not only because it's the recommended pain med but also because breast feeding tends to hurt my back. It's probably because I'm leaning forward too far while nursing but there really doesn't seem to be a position that doesn't leave me aching afterwards.

@banmojo:
I have four kids and I've never worn any of them. What a strange terminology.

Howabout instead of ranting... just... don't buy Motrin! Sheesh...

@Nicococure:

I bet ads like this will become more popular as more people get PVRs that don't allow commercial skip, but rather, commercial fast-forward. Even without sound, the ad gets its message across.

I'll make mine a MythTV.

Maybe their target was the people that make fun of the people that wear babies? Seriously, which is a bigger group? It would be a waste of money to target just baby wearers with a national campaign.

There is nothing in this world more annoying than a privileged yuppie baby factory with a cause. For chrissakes, it's a shame Darfur didn't say something vaguely annoying about breast feeding - somebody might have given a crap.

Then again, getting all butthurt over a pain reliever ad is a better way to spend your (apparently abundant) spare time than stopping a machete massacre anyway. Those things are depressing. Oh look! BRIGHT SHINY OBJECT!

Parody vids... right on schedule.

National Baby Wearing Week? Really?

@EhnoValemount: I don't know about the "baby wearers" (not being a parent myself), but I'm usually offended by smarmy voices and pretentious graphics claiming that they can peer into my very soul with their "amirite" attitude. No, we're not in this together, toots. You and your overpaid creative department are on your own.

@no.no.notorious:

+1

As for the story are you telling me that a small "group" of people bitched on the intertubes about a pain pill add. .

Honestly unless you make fun of people for something they can't change (race, ethnicity, gender) I see no reason to apologize.