# Pain reliever commercial sparks outrage among "babywearing" moms **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 19, 2008, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pain-reliever-commercial-sparks-outrage-among-babywearing-moms/473425 "2008-11-19T05:55:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2008, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pain-reliever-commercial-sparks-outrage-among-babywearing-moms/473425/21 "2008-11-21T21:35:01Z")
> [@Dangerosa](#): > > Or you look and say “sorry, you need to walk” or you put them in the stroller. As the mom of two kids a year apart in age, if your walking child WANTS to be carried, that certainly doesn’t mean you need to pick them up. You get to be in charge. > > (I picked up both my kids plenty, but on my terms. Tried multiple slings but never felt secure with them - I needed my hands on my kids when they were being carried. Seldom used a stroller. My kids put miles on their little shoes.) IME slings and carriers are mostly for little babies (sub-6-months) especially newborns (who don’t get shown a lot in promotional photos, being nowhere near as cute as an older baby). YM clearly V, but given the option between a)Cook dinner with one hand and a 4-month-old baby on the hip b)4-month-old on my back while I cook c)4-month-old in the bouncer being bounced by my foot, preventing me from moving round the kitchen d)Bad-tempered loud baby I found (a) to be the worst for my back, and (b) to be far more pleasant for the whole household than any other alternative. I own two strollers too. And plenty of shoes. They’re fine tools for moving kids around - but not for every possible situation (just like slings and carriers) ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2008, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pain-reliever-commercial-sparks-outrage-among-babywearing-moms/473425/22 "2008-11-21T21:43:16Z")
Babies make you tired, crazy, and cause back and neck pain. What’s the problem here? Are we not supposed to say these things out loud? ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2008, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pain-reliever-commercial-sparks-outrage-among-babywearing-moms/473425/23 "2008-11-21T22:19:49Z")
> [@even\_sven](#): > > In short, this isn’t treating their target audience like competent adults. Not a great way to sell your product. Actually, it is the tried and true method of selling your product. You tell people how ugly, stinky, stupid and incompetent they are, and then you tell them that your product is going to change all that. (The classic example: Not competent enough to drain pasta from a regular pot? Try our pot with the holes in the top that will allow even an incompetent idiot like you to cook spaghetti.) Of course that’s why I can never work up the energy to be offended by a commercial. They’re trying to sell you something and it’s to their advantage to make you think you need it, even if that means being silly, inaccurate or offensive. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2008, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pain-reliever-commercial-sparks-outrage-among-babywearing-moms/473425/24 "2008-11-21T22:20:25Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > IME slings and carriers are mostly for little babies (sub-6-months) especially newborns (who don’t get shown a lot in promotional photos, being nowhere near as cute as an older baby). YM clearly V, but given the option between > > a)Cook dinner with one hand and a 4-month-old baby on the hip > b)4-month-old on my back while I cook > c)4-month-old in the bouncer being bounced by my foot, preventing me from moving round the kitchen > d)Bad-tempered loud baby > > I found (a) to be the worst for my back, and (b) to be far more pleasant for the whole household than any other alternative. > > I own two strollers too. And plenty of shoes. They’re fine tools for moving kids around - but not for every possible situation (just like slings and carriers) The little I used a sling, I found it much better for the older set (where I could sling them on my hip) than for an infant. The baby seemed so fragile, and getting her in and out of the sling seemed impossible - and when I thought “I’m going to be doing this over asphalt in the Target parking lot” I became “not a sling mom” I wanted to be a sling mom - I owned or borrowed no less than four slings in an attempt to become a sling mom - but every one of them left me convinced that the baby was going to fall out either being put in, taken out, or while being worn. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2008, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pain-reliever-commercial-sparks-outrage-among-babywearing-moms/473425/25 "2008-11-21T22:30:12Z")
> [@featherlou](#): > > What’s the problem here? Are we not supposed to say these things out loud? Successful advertisements make women “feel good” about the product. This one didn’t, for reasons that are a hard to pin down precisely, having to due with the complex nature of the female psyche. Thus, it gets yanked. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Cymbeline](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_cymbeline/32/9244_2.png) [@Green\_Cymbeline](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Cymbeline)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2008, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pain-reliever-commercial-sparks-outrage-among-babywearing-moms/473425/26 "2008-11-22T00:11:44Z")
> [@featherlou](#): > > Babies make you tired, crazy, and cause back and neck pain. What’s the problem here? Are we not supposed to say these things out loud? Apparently not. Admitting to any negative aspects of motherhood makes you a Bad Mommy. You’re supposed to suck it up and not complain, or else you make Mommyhood look less than The Best and Most Important Job in the World. Breastfeeding hurts like hell? Shut up and deal with it. You should relish the pain - after all, you’re bonding and making your kid smarter, right? Wearing your kid on your back hurts? Tough, keep it to yourself. Admitting pain only makes you look weak, and if you’re weak, you have no business being a Mommy! ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2008, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pain-reliever-commercial-sparks-outrage-among-babywearing-moms/473425/27 "2008-11-22T17:50:33Z")
> [@Xema](#): > > Successful advertisements make women “feel good” about the product. This one didn’t, for reasons that are a hard to pin down precisely, having to due with the complex nature of the female psyche. Thus, it gets yanked. I agree with **SpoilerVirgin** - virtually all advertising is based on something you lack in your life (that their product will magically supply for you). Maybe what this commercial lacked was the link between (generic) your loser life and how their product would make it perfect. But thinking about it, they didn’t miss that - Motrin will make your life perfect. I guess it is just a case of not being allowed to even hint that babies and motherhood are anything less than sublime perfection. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2008, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pain-reliever-commercial-sparks-outrage-among-babywearing-moms/473425/28 "2008-11-22T19:11:47Z")
> [@nyctea scandiaca](#): > > Yeah I get that the mommies are outraged because the ad says that babywearing is in “fashion.” But the fact is, it’s entirely true. I hardly ever saw moms with baby slings and baby backpacks before a few years ago. Now you see them everywhere. I don’t get this. People have been doing this fairly regularly for at least the past 25 years - my parents weren’t unusual to carry my brother around this way back then; lots of my friends’ little siblings were put in baby slings too. I haven’t noticed it becoming any more or less common since then. ---
**Author:** ![Jenaroph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Jenaroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenaroph)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2008, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pain-reliever-commercial-sparks-outrage-among-babywearing-moms/473425/29 "2008-11-22T22:38:21Z")
> [@featherlou](#): > > Babies make you tired, crazy, and cause back and neck pain. What’s the problem here? Are we not supposed to say these things out loud? I think the point is that perhaps pain medication commercials shouldn’t imply that such pain is the result of “fashion” and “being trendy” nor sarcastically dismiss something women have been doing for thousands of years as “supposedly a good bonding experience.” I’m not a mom and I still picked up that vibe watching that commercial. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2008, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pain-reliever-commercial-sparks-outrage-among-babywearing-moms/473425/30 "2008-11-22T23:14:51Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > I don’t get this. People have been doing this fairly regularly for at least the past 25 years - my parents weren’t unusual to carry my brother around this way back then; lots of my friends’ little siblings were put in baby slings too. I haven’t noticed it becoming any more or less common since then. My daughter is nine, my son ten. And when I tried to be a sling mom it was definitely a counter culture not terribly mainstream thing. If you run in a counter culture crowd (I sort of do) - EVERYONE is a sling mom and has been for ages. If you are a 'burb soccer mom, slings used to be really rare - baby buckets, complex strollers that hook to your shopping cart - those were the thing. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2008, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pain-reliever-commercial-sparks-outrage-among-babywearing-moms/473425/31 "2008-11-22T23:48:45Z")
I think you could change this ad in small ways that would make it much more successful: Imply that going with the babywearing fad is bold and cutting edge - decidedly cool. But now and then you need just a little help to be the really with-it mom that you are - that’s where Motrin can help. We “empower” you to be the mom that others only wish they were. You can feel good about yourself and Motrin. Throw in that staple of all good ads these days: young, thin, white, sexy models with which the viewers can identify (“Wow, if I bought Motrin I could BE that woman!”) and you have it. ---
**Author:** ![Pyper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Pyper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pyper)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2008, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pain-reliever-commercial-sparks-outrage-among-babywearing-moms/473425/32 "2008-11-23T01:11:28Z")
> [@Jenaroph](#): > > I think the point is that perhaps pain medication commercials shouldn’t imply that such pain is the result of “fashion” and “being trendy” Yeah, I got that vibe from the commercial too, and what’s more, the other ads in this campaign are the same! I’ve seen bus stops ads for Motrin with a picture of two pills with “Humongous Handbag” and “High Heels” written on the pills. Those fashionable bags and shoes sure hurt a lot! Better pop some pills! Umm, how about removing some things from your purse or buying better shoes? And now, to equate babies as another thing in the “fashion-induced pain” category? Offensive. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2008, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pain-reliever-commercial-sparks-outrage-among-babywearing-moms/473425/33 "2008-11-23T01:47:38Z")
> [@nyctea scandiaca](#): > > Apparently not. Admitting to any negative aspects of motherhood makes you a Bad Mommy. You’re supposed to suck it up and not complain, or else you make Mommyhood look less than The Best and Most Important Job in the World. Breastfeeding hurts like hell? Shut up and deal with it. You should relish the pain - after all, you’re bonding and making your kid smarter, right? Wearing your kid on your back hurts? Tough, keep it to yourself. Admitting pain only makes you look weak, and if you’re weak, you have no business being a Mommy! Heh, a commercial which insinuates (or rather, outright states) that people who wear babies in carriers are doing so to impress others, to look like an “official mom”, and then offers them a pill to deal with the pains caused by such behaviour? It isn’t any mystery why _that_ causes offence. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![NinjaChick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2008, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pain-reliever-commercial-sparks-outrage-among-babywearing-moms/473425/34 "2008-11-23T02:29:36Z")
Until I saw this outrage du jour on some feminist blogs, I had no idea that “parents who carry their spawn in some carrying device” even had a name for themselves. Which really does make it seem like something that’s become trendy and hip, which makes me think there’s people who do it because it’s trendy and hip. It’s an ad. Save your righteous outrage for something that matters. ---
**Author:** ![askeptic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb9ed0/32.png) [@askeptic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/askeptic)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2008, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pain-reliever-commercial-sparks-outrage-among-babywearing-moms/473425/35 "2008-11-23T02:55:39Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > I wore that Baby Bjorn at least as much as my wife did; in fact, back when my kid had colic he wouldn’t go to sleep without me giving him a 45-minute walk around the neighborhood. [pointless aside] Hey! I just finished doing that. No colic just cranky. I don’t have any back pain and I don’t really have an opinion on this other than some people get outraged over the silliest things… [/pointless aside] ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2008, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pain-reliever-commercial-sparks-outrage-among-babywearing-moms/473425/36 "2008-11-23T15:27:21Z")
> [@nyctea scandiaca](#): > > Apparently not. Admitting to any negative aspects of motherhood makes you a Bad Mommy. You’re supposed to suck it up and not complain, or else you make Mommyhood look less than The Best and Most Important Job in the World. Breastfeeding hurts like hell? Shut up and deal with it. You should relish the pain - after all, you’re bonding and making your kid smarter, right? Wearing your kid on your back hurts? Tough, keep it to yourself. Admitting pain only makes you look weak, and if you’re weak, you have no business being a Mommy! No, the problem, as has been repeatedly stated and which you seemed to get in post 11, is that it leaves the impression that “Babywearing” is a fashion; that, like the oversized bags and high heels featured in other ads in this series, carrying your baby around in a sling is something people do for attention, not because it works as a parenting technique (as do plenty of other things, sure). It’s belittling and patronizing and portrays attentive parents as shallow twits. A sincere, “Moms and Dads, carrying your kids around all day is hard work on your back, isn’t it? What are your options? You could get a stroller [insert picture of baby crying in stroller as a wheel falls off] or maybe a nanny [insert picture of scary looking Eastern Bloc babushka here]…or you could take Motrin! [insert picture of young model woman who’s never given birth smiling and laughing with cherubic borrowed babe].” “Take Motrin to keep being a good mom without the pain”, not “take Motrin to keep being a good fashion plate with your child-sized accessory du jour”. Big difference. But of course that would not have fit with their entire current campaign aimed at women 'tween 18-40, which is all about how to use Motrin to ease your FASHION RELATED aches and pains. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2008, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pain-reliever-commercial-sparks-outrage-among-babywearing-moms/473425/37 "2008-11-23T15:37:27Z")
I was a 90 lb. mom and carried the baby for a couple years. And he was a giant baby. He walked at 7.5 months and ran for a couple years after that. Carrying him was definitely hard at times, but I never had any lingering pain that required medication. It’s a stupid commercial, but a boycott? Jesus…:rolleyes: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pain-reliever-commercial-sparks-outrage-among-babywearing-moms/473425.md?page=1)