In case you hadn't already heard, this week Motrin (the pain medication) released a new commercial. Days later they had already pulled it and issued a public apology.

Before we go into too much detail, let's start by watching the video in question, and then we'll try to figure out what all the fuss is about:

After the release of the commercial, the online buzz started. "Mommy bloggers" the internet over were incensed with the ad, and demanded a public apology. Twitter was, as they say atwitter, with requests for boycotts and plenty of other commentary on the matter. One letter, from the President of Babywearing International Inc (a non-profit promoting the benefits of wearing your baby) reads: 

We are deeply troubled by this campaign for the following reasons:

- It disparages babywearing mothers by portraying them as victims of a painful fashion trend;

- It falsely states that baby carriers "put a ton of strain" on the wearer's back, neck, and shoulders;

- It falsely implies that mothers who wear their babies "cry more" than those who don't;

- It portrays the research-proven benefits of babywearing as rumor or speculation subject to doubt;

- It disparagingly implies that babywearing mothers look "tired and crazy;" and

- It was timed to run during International Babywearing Week, November 12-18, 2008, when nonprofit babywearing groups all over the world are celebrating babywearing, and thousands of volunteers are working to publicize the benefits of babywearing and to encourage the practice of babywearing.

Just as we are working to create community support for this beneficial practice so that no parent will ever again be harassed or ridiculed for babywearing, McNeil is perpetuating an image of babywearing parents as silly people who make irrational choices to be in fashion. Your "mom-alogue" could hardly be more ill-timed, off-base, or damaging to babywearing parents or to parents who have yet to reap the benefits of babywearing.

That should help clear up why moms responded so passionately, but the real question is, "What was Motrin thinking?" 

Maybe it's the fact that I'm a dad who occasionally finds himself wearing just such a carrier, or maybe it's just the marketer in me, but I have to side with the baby wearers on this one. If Motrin had meant to target moms with their ad, then they had to have known it would be a dismal failure. The ad drips with sarcasm and flippancy, and offers very little in the way of empathy for moms at all.

A common response to the mommy blogger backlash has been to dismiss their response as hyper-sensitive, and I'm sure there are bloggers out there that fit that stereotype. But here's a newsflash: every parent I've met is sensitive in one way or another about their child-rearing practices, so a room full of ad agency-types should have known they should tread lightly around such a touchy subject. 

There's been plenty of discussion about it here in the office as well. James has already published his thoughts on the Adhack blog, linking to spoof vids that have already found their way to the web. Since he has already said what i intended to, I'll just reference him:

Perhaps Motrin will commission their next ad from their customers. They’ve proven able to create compelling ads. They’ve proven passionate about the products. They’ve proven they can connect and direct attention.

So, instead of guessing what they want, why not work with them and let them say what they want?

Now that sounds like it provides some pain relief.

Well said. I would go even further and say that since Motrin's brand has suffered such a huge blow, that they have no choice but to reconnect with that most influential demographic as quickly as possible, and only a sincere effort to listen will heal the wounds. 

Marketers, remember first and foremost that your customers now have a voice too, and you should never speak about them as if they're not listening. Instead, engage them at every opportunity and adapt to their feedback. Not just in a reactive way just when things go bad, but all the time. Their stories are more powerful than the ones written by your agency anyhow. 

Oh and Motrin...If you're listening, we'd be happy to provide the software platform that lets you bring these stories to light, and even lets the public or a panel of judges tell you which ones are the best ;) 

The Boston Pizza Designer Pizza Vote has come to an end, and the results are in.

For our team at Strutta, the most important metric we measured this time around was how the client felt about the experience and the technology. "We had the pleasure of working with Strutta on a brand new venture for our company," said Ryan Ashton, National Advertising Manager for Boston Pizza International. "From idea conception through to final deployment, including all project management work, they assumed the role of experts and navigated us through to the end product, which we couldn't be more pleased with."

We're equally delighted to be working with them, and we're glad the promotion was such a big success. The winner of the grand prize of free pizza for a year hasn't been announced yet, but we thought that now would be a good time time share a few details about how the contest was operated and even give you a sneak peek at some of the results.

Contest Type

The Designer Pizza Vote falls into the "product testing" category, where the "contestants" (in this case, six very bold pizza designs) are already determined, and visitors vote to pick their favorite. 

Software Used

The "pizza carousel" at the core of the vote is now legendary. Senior Architect Steven Wittens created it as a fun experiment with javascript, and people have been mistaking it's smooth fluidity with Flash ever since. When our clients at Boston Pizza saw the first versions of it, a quick decision was made to feature the carousel right on their home page, as a widget. 

Who Could Enter? How?

The contest was open to all Canadians over 13 years of age with a valid email address. Each visitor could register just one vote for their favorite, and immediately see the results in a pie chart (Get it? Pie chart? Just checking).  

Results? 

I'm sure the biq question on everyone's mind is "Which of these delicious pies won the vote?" In the end, it wasn't even close. The Canadian Classic took first place with 33% of votes, while the remaining contestants split the rest. It's tempting to think that it's all in a name, and that Canadians were just voing patriotically, but Francis Steiner of Let'sGoForDinner.com seemed to suggest that the rest of the recipes were just too polarizing in a popular vote. "It (the Canadian Classic) was closest to one that I would actually eat," said Steiner, when reviewing the choices.

While we will protect the actual figures of the votes out of respect for our clients, there are a few numbers that are just too good, so we HAVE to tell you. During the period of the contest, BP experienced the largest increase in subscribers in the history of their email club campaign. By offering both a grand prize and a free appetizer coupon just for voting and the opt-in email form converted a whopping 91.8% of all voters. We'd love to take all of the credit for making it so easy for all involved, but that kind of conversion rate tells a story about people's affinity to the Boston Pizza brand as well. Due to the fact that two promotions were running concurrently, all of those email club subscribers were rewarded with a free personal pizza coupon after their first week, a happy accident for Boston Pizza as it inevitably creating a new army of faithful BP fans, whose lifetime value as customers will mean that BP will enjoy the benefits of this promotion for years to come.

"Our experience in dealing with Strutta has been nothing short of spectacular, said Ashton. "And it's easy to see that we'll be joining forces with them again down the road for bigger, better and more engaging initiatives, which I know they'll come through on."

We look forward to it, and we'll be sure that you're the first to know when we have more news to share on what's next. 

If you have questions about contests like this one, or promotions that use user-generated video, photo or text submissions, visit our contact page and we'd be happy to talk to you about what your options are. 

This morning we launched another contest on our platform, and we are especially proud of this one.

Operation Gratitude is a charity that sends care packages to US troops deployed overseas. Especially during the holiday season, they make every effort to send care packages of familiar items from home to as many US servicemen and women as they can. To date, "OpGrat" volunteers have shipped close to 400, 000 care packages. Each contains a personally written note from a citizen at home, thanking them for their bravery and service.

Write a Letter, Enter to Win

Writing a short letter of thanks is a simple gesture, but to hear how much difference it makes in the lives of the troops, you get a sense of how rewarding an experience it is. The following video explains the contest, and features a few sound bytes from troops that have received care packages: 

Reminding these men and woman how important and appreciated they are seems reward enough, but Operation Gratitude and the contest sponsor, Roger's Family Coffee Company, are offering prizes in a random draw just for entering. Win the Grand Prize and your letter will go in the box of the 400, 000th Operation Gratitude care package. $2000 will be donated to the school of your choice, and you'll also receive a $250 gift certificate (good for a year's supply of Roger's Coffee) and a $100 iTunes Gift card. More information on prizes can be found on the prize page.

Your letters make a big difference, and Operation Gratitude appreciates your help in making sure they can send letters and packages to as many members of the US Military as possible.

Our team at Strutta are happy and proud to be involved, and although we have just one American on our team, we too send our encouragement and support to the individuals serving in the US military, and of course those stationed in our Canadian Military as well. After all, showing support the men and women who put themselves in harm's way for the safety of others should have little to do with politics, nationality or any other affiliation.

If you share this sentiment and have a few moments to spare, head on over to the contest site and start writing your letter.   

The team here at Strutta is excited and proud to announce that Steven Wittens has joined our team as Senior Architect. 

Although still a young man in his early twenties, Steven is already a wily veteran in the web development space. He has been working on the open source Drupal project (the CMS that runs this site) since its inception, and has contributed a number of modules and themes in the process. While Steven is best known for his skills as a developer, we can also vouch for his skills as a Rock Band drummer, Line Rider animations creator and web designer. In fact, just this week Smashing Magazine chose Steven's blog, Acko.net as one of 50 Beautiful Web Designs. One visit to the site and you can see why: 

Previous to joining us, Steven earned his Masters in Electrical Engineering in Leuven, Belgium, and was most recently a Senior Developer for Bryght, a local Drupal community hosting company. You may have also seen some of his past work in music visualization if you've ever used Winamp.

Here at Strutta, Steven is working on "building out the codebase in a clean and modular fashion." Along with Senior Developer Mike Holly and Senior UED Designer Ross Howard-Jones, Steven has been working on developing the new Strutta contest platform. The seemingly infinite number of statistics, variables and required security features is no match for Steven's ample grey matter.

Did you know that Steven is #10 of all Canadian Directors on YouTube for # of video views? Here's one of his more popular vids, Jagged Peak Adventure, which has nearly 9 million views: 

*img of Steven by Scott Hadfield