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In the September issue of Mothering Magazine, editor Peggy O’Mara details infant formula industry efforts to undermine breastfeeding:

In addition to the inaccurate information on breastfeeding provided by the mainstream media, the unethical marketing practices of the formula companies continue to undermine breastfeeding. Author Margaret Kenda recently told me about several “stealth” breastfeeding websites that appear to be grassroots advocacy sites, but are actually mouthpieces for the formula industry.

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Writing for The Washington Post, reporters Marc Kaufman and Christopher Lee detail formula industry efforts to eviscerate a Dept of Health and Human Services breastfeeding promotion campaign. The report illustrates the formula industry’s agenda to market its product at the expense of public health. Read the article.

The Infant Formula Council’s “Moms Feeding Freedom” web site has deleted scores of anti-marketing posts from its blog and discussion forums, censoring animated discussions among mothers about the ethics of aggressive formula marketing tactics.

Posting about the deleted threads, contributor Songbh writes, “So, what does it say when a website that claims to be devoted to protecting mothers’ freedoms and choices starts ‘disappearing’ our free speech?”
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Boston, MA – Touting “maternity patients’ rights,” an International Formula Council-backed bill is under consideration by the Joint Committee on Public Health. The bill would legislate a mother’s “right” to formula samples and equipment in the hospital, protecting industry interests at the expense of public health. Read more »

June 2007 – The formula industry has enlisted two international PR firms to defend hospital-based marketing of infant formula.
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The Infant Formula Council has launched a new web site titled “Moms Feeding Freedom,” dedicated to defending hospital-based marketing of infant formula. Hosted by a corporate communications consultant, the site dismisses overwhelming scientific evidence that marketing bags undermine breastfeeding as “ridiculous.”

So far, moms online aren’t buying it. Responding to blog host Kate Kahn’s suggestion that moms are too smart to be swayed by a gift bag, one mother comments:

One meme of these formula-industry shills is that “women are too smart” to be swayed by advertising. Isn’t it ironic that this tired and deeply flawed rhetoric is being touted on a website that is nothing more than an extension of the formula industry’s advertising/lobbying efforts?

I guess they’re hoping that women aren’t nearly as smart as they are telling us we are.

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