To give credit where credit is due…The offending video has been removed from the Motrin website. In its place, an apology:

Now would be the time for the criticism to end and constructive suggestions to begin, I think. So Motrin, come on back, get plugged in, and let the community work with you toward a better and more effective campaign.

The firestorm began 15 hours or so ago, when Jessica Gottlieb sent this:

This tweet was in response to someone else asking her why anyone would want to buy Motrin when generic was cheaper. (I have an answer to that, but will save it for another day…)

Now check out this Twitscoop graph for the term Motrin:

Here’s the thing: These moms are pissed, and they’re pissed because it was a stupid ad that obviously wasn’t run by anyone they hoped to target. Further, these are smart, savvy, network-connected moms who understand exactly what voice they have, particularly as consumers.

To quote Jessica again, they’re using their “outside voices”. And they mean it.

Had the folks who created this ill-conceived PR campaign thought for half a second, or had a clue about how Twitter works, they would already have been reaching out to the community, asking about how they handled pain, how they did it while nursing, what they most loved about being new moms, what they most wished could be different, what tools they wanted but don’t currently have.

Instead, these geniuses launched a program to run on National Babywearing Week (I kid you not), designed and created to be insulting and derisive to the people they want to reach with their product.

Worse yet, they weren’t monitoring Twitter or tracking their brand. If they were, they’d have known the following:

• I suggested Motrin to a Twitter friend suffering from a back spasm
• I routinely suggest it for sinus headaches
• Within an hour of Jessica Gottlieb’s first tweet, Twitter had a HUGE swarm around the term Motrin and the tag #motrinmoms (though I think hashtags are limiting and unnecessary, go try it on twitter search).

More harm was done to the Motrin brand by this campaign than I could even imagine. If Johnson & Johnson is smart, they will fire the folks who came up with this, hire some people who understand the power of the network, and reach out with some really, really sincere apologies.

As many of the moms have pointed out, this campaign takes aim at women who are already at their most vulnerable, struggling to manage a newborn, hormones, change in their lives and everyone giving them advice. They surely don’t need their choices dissed by product manufacturers asking that same audience to buy their product.

Watch the reaction here:

Some other reactions from women much closer to babywearing age than I:

• Beth Dunn
• Nikki Katz
• Chicago Moms Blog
• Holly

These women get it. Motrin, you didn’t. Time to mend some fences, I’d say.

Twitter Track: Last seen 176 days, 20 hours, 27 minutes ago. Bring. it. back.

Bonus Link: Microcasting

Yesterday’s thought-provoking Twitter question of the day was this: Why, Karoli, are you moaning about being placed in the Style section of the NY Times when the ad running on the side of your blog is for JC Penney’s home store?

My response: No matter what subject I blog about, furniture is relevant. It’s pretty universal, that idea of having things to sit on or at, sleep on, work on, or put your stuff on.

His response: But if your ad was an Intel ad, you’d be featured in the tech section.

Mine: Which begs the question: Why aren’t tech companies rushing to do ad buys on women’s blogs?

It’s really a chicken/egg question, isn’t it? Do we blog to the ads or do the ads stem from the blog? Or do they have to be linked up at all? If you start from a premise that ads and bloggers are somehow inextricably entwined, the answer seems obvious, which is what rocks Google’s world. Context-sensitive advertising is what it’s all about. Blog about Intel; Intel advertises. Blog about politics; campaigns buy ads, because of course, the readers of those blogs would be most likely to click through those ads to discover the product, candidate or service.

I disagree. This is partly because I live in a world of intersecting circles, diverse interests and passions, as do most of you reading this blog. You may be a photography nut but that doesn’t mean you don’t buy shoes. You may write about health or ADHD or parenting or your kids, but that doesn’t mean you don’t give a damn about politics (especially this year!).

If I followed the model of context-sensitive advertising on this blog, Entertainment Tonight and alarm companies would be rushing to buy ads here, because the top searches for content on this blog relate to the posts I did on Britney Spears and Firstline Security. Those posts are less than 1% of what I care about. I’d guess that’s true for just about every one of you folks who visit this blog or spend any time there.

Another word for this idea of context-sensitive advertising might be this: stereotyping. Perhaps Intel isn’t doing ad buys on BlogHer blogs because they assume that readers of blogs written by women would not be interested in their latest enterprise technology, or fastest chip, or graphics accelerator, etc.

They’re dead wrong. I love new hardware like I love fast cars and great pens. It’s one of the joys of being a geek. But I don’t always blog about it; I just use it. And if I like it, yes, I write about it, just like I wrote about the Prius, the Chevy Tahoe Hybrid and the BlackBerry (which is truly God’s gift to mobile technology…hear me, RIM?). I love my Nikon cameras and blog with and about them often, but Nikon doesn’t advertise here either. If they did, would that mean the New York Times would place an article about women bloggers in the Travel Section?

The fallacy in the argument that ads define the blogger is this: Most women don’t write to the ad revenue. (That’s also true of many men who blog, though blogs with a ‘business model’ seem to be built for that context-sensitivity thing) It’s nice, but it’s not why we write. I run BlogHer ads on this blog because BlogHer is responsible about who they accept ads from, and they’re fair about sharing the revenue. But the day I start deciding what to write or how to write it based upon what ads might pop up on this site will be the day I tell you all good bye. I don’t make enough money from the ads on this site — my site, under my control — to let anyone define what I will and won’t write about and where my focus will or will not be.

The editorial decision to run an article about the BlogHer Conference in the Style section because the ads on our blogs are for furniture companies is a sign of dangerous and stereotypical thinking. While I appreciate the NY Times reporting on BlogHerCon at all, I also think they would have done well to focus less on the obvious — marketing opportunities to women — and more on the important — women empowered to raise their collective voices in support of issues, people, children, fathers, mothers, and society as a whole.

The point here is to be heard, not sold. The takeaway from BlogHer for me had very little to do with making money and everything to do with making noise and making connections. Isn’t there something newsworthy about over 1,000 women plus many more in virtual attendance via Second Life leveraging technology to make a difference?

I think there is. Do you?

This is the second notice we’ve received in the mail from these people. A couple of observations before I give details: a) There is no return address; only a telephone number; and b) There is no reference to which vehicle we should be considering a warranty for. Still, it looks pretty official, doesn’t it?

It took me awhile to track this down — Internet resources aren’t all that plentiful on these, but I did find some. There is a website for these people which consists of 2 pages: A home page which claims to have “Senior Warranty Consultants” to custom-design an aftermarket auto warranty for your needs, and a phone number.  The second page is a “contact us” page with the same phone number that’s on the home page.

A WhoIs query indicates that the business is located in Florida, but all contact information goes back to Premier Home Mortgage Corp. in Missouri, servers located in South Carolina (Nuvox Communications).

That’s the extent of what’s available online.

When we received the first notice, I assumed they were referring to the Prius, since our other car has nearly 200,000 miles on it.  But our Prius has an extended warranty out to 100,000 miles.  The language in this notice is loaded — here are some quotes intended to grab your attention:

This is your final warranty notice to extend or reinstate your warranty coverage

Sounds pretty official, doesn’t it?  Like maybe something isn’t right with our current coverage and it’s expiring?  Of course, as a throwaway they say that if you extended your warranty at the time of purchase, disregard, but they’re sending this out to everyone anyway.

It goes on with this:

The importance of having warranty protection is at an all time high.  If you have not extended your warranty yet, you must call (toll free) 1-800-xxx-xxxx on or before the deadline date.

This is an example of deceptive, covert marketing at its worst. It is a trap intended to force you to turn over your credit card and/or personal information on the phone.

WTOC TV in Savannah Georgia has a report on their website (their report concerns telemarketing, but I believe there are California restrictions on unsolicited telemarketers that would necessitate a different point of contact):

Two days ago, one telemarketer caught her attention, trying to sell her a new $1,600 warranty for her red 1999 Chrysler Town and Country van, which has 60,000 miles on it.

“They gave me this spiel about my car being out of warranty. You need this,” Sandra said. “If you need repairs, it will cost you money.”

Then the red flags started flying. They wanted her credit card and bank account numbers right then and there.

“There is no way I was giving my credit card over the phone,” Sandra said. “If I’m not giving credit, I’m certainly not giving my bank account number. She said, ‘We have to do this today.’ Okay. Red flag. You know this is illegitimate.”

“It’s just the most popular thing in cons,” Better Business Bureau president Ross Howard told WTOC.

Howard calls this type of scam spoofing. He says its object is to scare a customer into giving up personal info.

“Truth of the matter is, there are not many companies that will give you a warranty for cars with high mileage that is older,” Howard said. “They just want her money. That’s all it is.”

I did a search on the company at the Better Business Bureau website and got the following results:

The Bureau processed a total of 50 complaints about this company since the firm’s BBB file was opened in June of 2005. Of the total 50 complaints since the firm’s BBB file was opened in June of 2005, 47 of those were closed in the last 12 months

Several of those complaints were related to aggressive advertising, but many more were related to refund or exchange issues — nearly half. Despite this, the BBB gives it a “Satisfactory” record.

What troubles me the most about this covert, deceptive effort to get our personal information is that there are ties back to mortgage banking, whether direct or indirect. The BBB information lists a Sr. Vice President and Customer Service Manager as the company management - no President is listed.

So, assuming I were crazy enough to actually call this number, which I’m not and which I’m writing this to urge anyone reading this not to do, who would I really be giving my information to and why? Is the ultimate goal to engage them in some sort of mortgage marketing and/or scamming? (See this 2007 BBB warning about the proliferation of Advance fee Loan Scams).

The tipoffs that this was something other than what they claim to be?

1. No notice that the card they mailed was an advertisement
2. No mailing address on their correspondence
3. An incomplete website with no explanation of their product
4. The loaded language intended to make me believe I was somehow being irresponsible if I did not contact them immediately
5. No association with Toyota, the dealer we purchased the car from, or the warranty currently covering the car

Beware of email, telephone calls and mail like this, and whatever you do, DON’T give your personal information to them, no matter how much you are pressured to do so.

Technorati Tags: covert marketing, deceptive marketing, automotive warranty, scam, consumer protection, mass marketing, scam spoofing, automotive warranty advisors, buyer beware