I promised to write about the Motrin incident, but there has been so much happening, that I am blending that topic with a couple of others: BPA problem and Mumbai/Twitter. 

Recently, Motrin run a tv spot about women carrying their babies with them wherever they went. Here’s the spot. 

Moms with babies didn’t like it. They thought Motrin was poking fun at them, snickering about having to always be with the baby. Motrin was making the primary point that Moms were having backaches, neck and shoulder problems due to lugging junior around. Mom’s were having none of that either. So some angry Moms deployed new media (especially Twitter), which caught on like wild fire, and led to more postings. And that led to YouTube videos. Here’s one Mom talking back.

Ouch! So, Motrin waited three days, three days, before responding to the outcry. Too late, the damage was done. So, the company wrote an apology. I didn’t see it, but several blogs reported that it sounded as if was written by a committee. Bland. Impersonal. More gas on the fire. 

This is similar to the BPA problem that struck the Outdoor Industry.  Bad stuff leaching into the water from the plastic in the water bottles had been living on the blogsphere for 2 years; however, when it caught fire it exploded. And that’s the point with both the Motrin and BPA situations…they can explode immediately or be ignored for awhile and then explode. The lesson for all outdoor companies? If you pick up a potential problem about your products or brand on online media, don’t wait. Early detection and action can make a small problem small. It can also make a potentially big problem small.

Now, quickly to Mumbai. Last Friday night I was monitoring Twitter on the Mumbai crisis. There was so much conversation “on the ground” that it was chaotic, real, unfocused, and confusing. Twitter was updating every twenty seconds. Posts like “heard another explosion”, ” more gunfire”, and  ”more troops coming.”  I’m sure these posts reflected the chaos that continued to unfold in the hot spots.

Millions are using new media to report, whether on news events or product performance.  And all companies are in the mix. Your company may not be in the conversation at the moment, but when your moment comes you need to be ready…for the good and the bad.