The Continual Hidden Meaning in Infant Formula Marketing

Executive Summary

• Infant formula manufacturers have changed tactics to acknowledge breast milk is best.
• However, in their marketing, they seem to undermine this claim.

Introduction

A major part of infant formula marketing in the modern era is acknowledging breast feeding is best while undermining breastfeeding as “difficult” and finding a way to market their formula over breast milk.

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The Quotes

The following quote is one example of this.

I did see one problem inherent in the free gift I was sent, however, and that was the enclosed reading material. I was media savvy enough to understand that the pro-breastfeeding pamphlet included in my Similac sponsored gift was just lip service, but obviously they were sending mothers a mixed message by offering free formula samples along with a small booklet of advice to help with all the potential problems we might fact if we choose to breastfeed: Breastfeeding is hard. Choose formula. Message received. – Bottled Up How the Way We Feed Babies Has Come to Define Motherhood and Why It Shouldn’t

This is the double messaging that is standard in infant formula marketing.

Constant Lying By Formula Manufacturers

Formula manufacturers provide a steady stream of false information about the nutrition of their formula versus breast milk, as is explained in the following quotation.

Writing about the recent shortage, science journalist and author Jennifer Margulis, Ph.D., asked, “Why are we feeding crap to our kids?”

She wrote:

“Baby formula is not food … these soulless companies have only one motivation: to do everything they can to derail a new mom’s ability to breastfeed her baby.

“They spend millions of dollars to sponsor pediatricians, wine and dine doctors and other healthcare professionals, and to do everything they can to dupe moms into believing that formula is just like breastmilk.”

The World Health Organization on April 28 released a report detailing the “shocking extent” of formula milk marketing that “insidiously and persistently” targets moms at the most vulnerable moments of their lives.

Margulis listed these three reasons to “hate” manufactured formulas:

Fact: A baby-fed infant formula is more likely to die than a baby who is exclusively breastfed.
Fact: Formula-feeding disrupts a baby’s microbiome, which can have lifelong negative health consequences, including putting the child at higher risk of obesity, diabetes, and even cardiovascular diseases later in life.
Fact: Exclusively breastfed babies have higher IQs and fewer attention challenges at age eight than formula-fed babies.”

Breast milk, not formula, is the optimal food for infants, said Margulis. The Mayo Clinic agrees: “Breastfeeding provides the best nutrition for your baby and is the most widely recommended way to feed a newborn.” – Children’s Health Defense