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When I started writing in this space I was a business virgin. And now I take glee in every business story that happens to cross my path. My interest is most readily piqued when it comes to marketing and blogging because it is such a relatively new phenomenon that I’ve watched blossom before my eyes. It’s hard not to wonder whether or not the geeks who started blogging so early on ever dreamed that a simple online diary would turn into such a marketing tool. And I doubt that anyone ever thought that mothers would be a driving force within the community. But it has happened, ever so slowly and both bloggers and business are learning to adapt to see what works and doesn’t work. Because it is new and there is no other way to emphasize this fact. Like with anything in its relative infancy things need to be tested and tweaked and expecting perfection is a little…and I am so not going to mince words here…well, it’s bit on the ludicrous side.
Over the past week plus I’ve witnessed a rather spectacular blogging and marketing mess of confusion. That’s the only way to adequately describe the debacle that I’ve been referring to as “Camp Babygate”. Before I go on I feel compelled to say that I’m writing this as a complete outsider to the situation (I don’t have children and so it would have been impossible for me to have been included or to feel hurt for not being included). I am Switzerland and I’m enjoying some wine and trying to digest and comprehend.
The synopsis is that Johnson & Johnson invited 50 ‘mommybloggers’ to attend a midweek conference called Camp Baby. I would imagine that the thought behind this melding of the mommyblogging minds was that Johnson & Johnson knew how much of a force to contend with mothers who blog have become. J&J is the ultimate baby company and figured that they could and should tap into this market, offer up some products, and get the word out via the blogging vehicle. In the following weeks more and more women invited started blogging and twittering about whether or not they would be attending the conference. Innocuous enough, as more of their fellow “mommybloggers” heard about Camp Baby the more chatter started as to who was or wasn’t invited and why. All was still relatively fine. About two weeks ago as the event became more popular and women were finalizing details things seemed to unbuckle at the seams.
Some of those invited felt that they had been “uninvited” as they learned that nursing babies weren’t allowed at the camp because it was a “mother’s getaway”. And others were uninvited when Johnson and Johnson who would be paying for women to travel and stay at the event, was unable to accommodate specific travel arrangements as these bloggers were unable to attend the event in its entirety. All I can say about the various arguments for being upset with Johnson & Johnson is that some seem more valid than others but fine.
Julie from Mothergoosemouse was uninvited after she started to make travel arrangements to get to the airport and mentioned her nine-week old Oliver who would also be attending:
Yesterday, I emailed the organizer who’d approved my attendance to advise her of this change to my arrangements, and she asked if I was planning to bring my infant to the conference. When I confirmed that yes, I would be bringing him along and keeping him in a sling with me, she advised me that, in short, I could not attend with my baby in tow. That Johnson’s Camp Baby had been planned - by mothers - to be a baby-free getaway.
Stefania Pomponi-Butler was ‘uninvited’ as she finalized her travel plans and requested a tweak in her travel needs based on a speaking invitation that she had already accepted at the same time in New York City:
Hi there,
I have already purchased my ticket for the BlogHer conference...I would need travel to J&J on Tuesday to arrive the night before the camp starts. Then I suppose I would need travel back to Manhattan for the BlogHer conference. Is that do-able?
MARCH 15
from Stefania
to redacted < redacted @rfbinder.com>,
date Sat, Mar 15, 2008 at 3:55 PM
subject Re: Johnson's Camp Baby Registration Information
mailed-by gmail.comSorry meant to say travel on Wednesday to arrive by 6pm.
