Feature

National Breastfeeding Awareness Campaign will be Launched

The US Breastfeeding Committee is announcing today that the $40 million National Breastfeeding Awareness Campaign will launch this spring in spite of infant formula company protests. The USBC met with Dept. of Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary Kevin Keane on January 22, to discuss the HHS decision on the revised content and theme of the campaign. The DHHS campaign, originally due to be launched in December 2003, was postponed after a concerted lobbying effort from the formula industry, who targeted Tommy Thompson, Lamar Alexander, Bill Frist, and the American Academy of Pediatrics, among others. The Massachusetts Breastfeeding Coalition, which includes several members of the USBC, is pleased that the campaign will go on after concerns about possible cancellation, and that it will contain strong statements about the importance of exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life.

The Ad Council who developed the campaign for DHHS, conducted research which found that women are most likely to respond to information on the risks of not breastfeeding, rather than the more traditional “benefits of breastfeeding” approach. The Ad Council research showed that traditional messages lead people to think of breastfeeding like vitamins, as a healthy supplement to a standard diet. Currently, US breastfeeding rates fall well below federal goals set by Healthy People 2010. Despite enormous pressure from the infant formula industry, DHHS will stick to the original risk-based message. However, DHHS will soften the tone of the original message.

For the creation of the ads, an advisory panel of nationally known experts came up with conservative numbers for the risks of not breastfeeding, in the process reviewing scientific papers quite rigorously. These risk numbers were removed, in part because the researchers believed that the range of risk cannot be communicated accurately in a single number for one condition. Yet, single numbers are necessary for an effective marketing format. According to the original ad campaign, children who are not exclusively breastfed for six months are:

• about 40% more likely to develop type 1 diabetes (also known as juvenile-onset diabetes)
• about 25% more likely to become overweight or obese
• about 60% more likely to suffer from recurrent ear infections
• about 30% more likely to suffer from leukemia
• about 100% more likely to suffer from diarrhea
• about 250% more likely to be hospitalized for respiratory conditions like asthma and pneumonia

The infant formula industry has traditionally framed infant feeding as a lifestyle choice rather than a public health issue. They said they do not like the campaign because they fear it will make mothers feel guilty, and they question the science behind the ads. The risk-based campaign puts infant feeding back into the domain of public health. In spite of industry pressure, the ad campaign will go on. If you share these concerns, you can write to the following places:

You may also write your US Senators and Representatives in Congress.

Additional news and contact info is available at: www.ilca.org/news/index.php

References and Links:

• Campaign is Launched (June 09, 2004). View some of the ads.
• Dr. Johnston’s letter to Tommy Thompson, Dr. Gartner’s letter to Tommy Thompson, and Dr. Gartner’s letter to his AAP colleagues are all reprinted with permission by Mothering Magazine, available on their website.
• “Breastfeeding Ads Delayed by a Dispute Over Content” by Melody Petersen. NY Times, Dec. 4, 2003
• “The Milky Way of Doing Business,” by Katie Allison Granju, www.hipmama.com/node/view/588 December 19, 2003.
• A statement from the US Breastfeeding Committee is available on their website.