Leo Burnett - Cultural Fuel

In the times of the oh-so-empowered “Prosumer” user-generated outcries over companies, brands and their sometimes inane advertising has been the domain of blogs, forums and review sites. Now, first reports come in that the chatty monosyllabic twitter crowd has also made some forays into user-generated consumer advocacy, or, shall we say, advertising-related hate tweets. Case in point: Motrin’s mom-alogue video.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mztymu72l7c]

Is this a case of trendspotting gone wrong? Yeah, the baby wearing thing is a trend and forums are agog with mothers discussing it. However, trying to usurp that trend is apparently another story.

I personally think the whole thing is a stretch conceptually, but regardless of that, I can see how some moms, especially those who are supposed to be relevant as an audience, might take offense, or at least, write it off as insipid marketing hu-ha. How convenient that you don’t even need a blog anymore to rant, but instead, you can micro-blog the bejesus out of brands: it’s even faster feedback that brands have to deal with now. Result for Motrin: the twitter outrage made it into the TOP 5 of google search results when you search for Motrin.

It’s time brands developed a fall-back plan for failed ad ideas that are getting ripped apart by the blogosphere, and recently, the micro-blogosphere, or, actually, have something relevant to say instead of straddling this or the other trend, just because for lack of better ideas.