Procter and Gamble is known as a marketing powerhouse and no novice when it comes to social media.

So it makes you wonder how one of its divisions could have stuck its foot so deeply into its mouth on Twitter.

Vicks, maker of NyQuil, DayQuil and ZzzQuil tweeted the following

SLEEP LIKE he finally proposed. And you have been dating for a decade. #SleepLike #engaged #shesaidyes pic.twitter.com/r3MQNNjZM6

— ZzzQuil (@ZzzQuil) January 23, 2015

and was lambasted for 19 hours by women and men alike.

While the tweet sucks as an attempt at humor, it is right in line with two TV ads currently running.

In case you aren’t familiar, one is for dads and one is for moms.

The dads take NyQuil so they can go to work, while the moms take DayQuil so they can stay home and chauffeur the kids around.

Seems like all three would play better in the 1950s than now.

I suppose you could blame Vicks advertising agency for them, but Vicks marketing must have signed off on them.

It just goes to show that even the savviest companies can trip if they lose site of who their customers are, as opposed to who they were.

Image credit: theimpulsivebuy

CEOs have the spotlight today—about them, from them and for them.

CEOs have never liked anything that comes between them and the compensation they believe they deserve—not independent directors, governance gurus, sensibility and certainly not TARP. Business Week offers an interesting overview of TARP’s effect on CEO engagement, but it’s the readers’ comments that make the story unique.

What exactly does a CEO contribute to the organization? In an excellent article from A.G. Lafley, Procter & Gamble’s CEO, talks about the most important things to focus on, wherever you are in the business cycle.

Now learn interesting lessons from a Bollywood dance class and a parent who asks “Can our leaders dance?”.

By now, everybody has heard of Susan Boyle; in this article from Harvard Business Publishing Peter Bregman discusses how to find the ‘Susan Boyles’, i.e., hidden talent, in your organization.

Your comments—priceless

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Image credit: nono farahshila on flickr