Controversial Motrin Moms Commercial

This commercial ticked off a lot of baby-wearing moms, creating quite a buzz in the blogosphere, lots of video responses on YouTube, and enough complaints to McNeil that the company issued this statement on the Motrin website:

I’m actually one of the vocal minority that thought the furor was much ado about nothing. You’d think that McNeil was undermining the fabric of American families by suggesting baby carriers can hurt. I don’t watch hardly any TV at all because it’s like feeding your brain a steady diet of junk food, so I would have never known about this commerical except I was alerted to it in an e-mail. After seeing it I actually thought the commercial, though kind of tacky in its narrative, was funny, because I can relate to it. I tried a sling with my oldest when she was a few weeks old (she’s 5 now) and didn’t like it, and neither did she. I also found taking the baby out of a carseat, into the sling/carrier, and back in the carseat when out and about to be a hassle. So I quickly abandoned the idea. Three more kids later and I go around looking tired and crazy most all the time too. Now I will acknowledge that if you’re using a sling/carrier and feel like you need to take Motrin, you need to adjust it or get another that fits closer to you and is better supported to take the strain off and relieve the pain, but I bet there are some moms out there that can’t wear any kind of sling or carrier without pain, probably because they already have neck, back and/or shoulder issues. I would hope they wouldn’t take Motrin and wear their babies anyway just so they look or feel like a “real mom.” They shouldn’t be made to feel guilty if they have to stop.

I wonder how the Greatest Generation got along without being worn by their mommas?