Three prominent charities are calling for a total advertising ban on baby milk in the UK, and restrictions on other forms of marketing by baby formula producers.
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The National Childbirth Trust (NCT), Save the Children and Unicef contend that adverts for baby milk are responsible for many mothers giving up breast feeding before the recommended six months.
The charities are calling on the UK government to extend a ban on infant milk adverts to include “follow-on” milks for older babies.
As it stands, companies are not allowed to advertise formula milk for babies under six months but are allowed to promote follow-on milks for children aged between six months and two years. The Food Standards Agency (FSA) is reviewing policy on the promotion of formula milk.
The charities have accused baby milk companies of using their follow-on milks to promote their products for younger infants by giving them the same brand name and logo.
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By GlobalDataIn a report entitled A weak formula for legislation: how loopholes in the law are putting babies at risk, the charities call for a ban on the advertising of all types of formula to close these legal loopholes.
The report, published to coincide with World Breastfeeding Week, also calls for measures to prevent companies from using their company name or logo on leaflets and in magazines as a form of advertising.
Campaigners have even likened the marketing strategies of breast milk manufacturers to those employed by tobacco companies. “In similar ways to how tobacco companies found their way through loopholes in legislation, formula milk companies are finding ways to exploit ambiguity in the law and to continue aggressively marketing their products to parents,” said Belinda Phipps of the NCT.
A recent incident when SMA’s follow-on milk brand was advertised in the magazine OK! next to a feature in which UK celebrity Katie Price, aka Jordan, was photographed feeding her three-week-old baby SMA’s infant formula and espousing the benefits of bottled milk, has particuarly incensed campaigners.
Save the Children and the NCT have reported the issue to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) and the Trading Standards Service, describing it “as a flagrant breach of the rules”, while Brenda Phipps said she was so enraged by the OK! incident that she took a copy of the magazine personally to the Food Standards Agency.
A spokesperson for SMA Nutrition, quoted by UK newspaper The Times, said: “We have no commercial relationship with Jordan. What has happened is a total coincidence. We preplan our advertising months in advance and obviously someone at the magazine thought it would be a good place to put the ad next to this feature. From our point of view that was very unfortunate as it has caused so much upset.”
However, one academic has suggested that the link between advertising formula milk and women stopping breast feeding is not that strong. Dr Ellie Lee of the University of Kent, who has conducted research into breastfeeding, said that advertising had a “negligible” effect on a woman’s decision to switch from breast to bottle. According to Lee’s research, the decision was a “pragmatic” one based on “personal circumstances”.
Currently, around 76% of mothers in the UK breastfeed, which is actually 7% up from 2000, but most move on to formula within weeks, and fewer than half are still breastfeeding by the time their infants are six weeks old.
