This week the Washington Post ran a story about how federal health officials attempted to put together a gutsy, eye-catching ad campaign in an attempt to raise breastfeeding rates. The formula industry successfully lobbied against the ad campaign and the Health and Human Services Dept (HHS) watered down the ads significantly. US Congress is set to investigate whether or not the Bush administration has been letting political considerations get in the way of public health policies. Here are photos of the original ads, the final ads and a letter from a lobbyist thanking the HHS for changing the ads.
The ensuing battle over these ads (from 2004) is being waged in papers, on tv, by bloggers. The HHS is claiming that they actually changed the ads because science didn’t support the exaggerated claims in the original ads. The opposition (everyone from lactivists to political pundits) is claiming political interference. Women who couldn’t breastfeed are saying the ads were hurtful for insinuating that they were harming their children by not breastfeeding. Even breastfeeding advocates are weighing in to say that we shouldn’t use guilt to force or coerce mothers into breastfeeding if they don’t want to. Yet others are claiming that the ads were insulting because they assume consumers (mothers) need to be given a hardline message similar to anti-drugs and anti-drinking and driving messages in order to do what is best for their children because the simple truth—that breastfeeding is good for babies—isn’t good enough and doesn’t work.
Check out who all is weighing in:
ABC news
Wired
Marketplace (transcript and podcast)
LA Times
How do we get to the bottom of this? How will we ever know what’s true? Maybe these ads were insulting. Maybe mothers should be “smart” enough to breastfeed just because we know it’s good for babies without the scare tactics. But considering that breastfeeding is up against the formula industry with its big bucks advertising, free samples at the hospital and high pressure government lobbying, how do we expect such a soft message to work? Considering that only 11% of American women breastfeed to six months, isn’t it time that we recognize that our current tactics and promotional attempts aren't working? Maybe moms need more support to continue breastfeeding? Maybe we need to be more competitive? Maybe we need to get stricter with the formula companies?
Food for thought: Dr. Jack Newman’s handout on breastfeeding and guilt.
What are your thoughts? Were the ads too much? What about the role of the formula companies? Post your comments.
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