It might be useful to put my media hat on for a moment, and point out that pictures have a great deal of meaning in culture. A picture that is specifically designed to carry meaning in advertising and promotion, has a huge heritage and history behind it. None of us can come across such an image, an icon, without reacting subconciously to its 'load'. But we also have personal history, and that personal history can overcome the cultural load, and we can overlay it without own immediate meaning. Hence, one picture can mean many things to many people, but always have some sense of a 'commoness of understanding' about it. The picture of a baby's bottle, especially the 50s type of upright round plastic container, tapered to an upright rubber teat, has had huge amounts of energy and money and time spent on it. It was set up to illustrate all that was good about 1950s cultural conception of what babyhood, and motherhood, should be, through the lens of those who made profit from selling to mothers. It was clean, sterile, washable, convenient, full of natural goodness. It was the perfect delvery system for artificial milk, and it was set up with endless images of rosy cheeked bundles of smiles and lovingness. It was the mother's best friend, her liberator and her ally in her struggle to raise an healthy and efficient child. I'd say it replaced the breast in images, but of course, that's not true. There were no common day images of breastfeeding for it to replace. There might be high art on a museum wall somewhere, and if you look, photographs in collections... but there were no images of breasts, and breastfeeeding, in the marketplace. In common, everyday occurence. Jut saying the word 'breast' was so taboo that La Leche League had to find a code in order to discuss and promote their meetings. In this vacuum, the icon of the baby's bottle flourished - to mean babies and babyhood. A delivery system for artificial food that came to mean all that was wholesome about babies. Some of us still see the bottle that way. Some of us react violently to it because that is what it means. Some of us see it through personal history, and know that were it not for the bottle, many breastfeeding Mums wouldn't be sending their milk into day care. Some of us still mistake the delivery system, for the artificial product, although this is no longer a useful way to see it, I'd argue. Whilst we all know and understand what is meant by "the bottle brigade" - it's a meaningless distinction now, since so many mothers feed breastmilk via bottle. It's not the bottle, it's what is in it. Most of us go through this range of understandings and meanings when we look at a picture of a baby's bottle. Nowadays, I can never look at a picture of a bottle, without seeing the starving baby superimposed into it, that was so effective in marshalling support aganst Nestle in the 1970s. I have, therefore, an immediate gut reaction against the image of a bottle, especially in advertising. The point of the Code is to protect women from the iconic use of the baby's bottle, to banish it, and to reduce down the cultural meaning of wholesome goodness that it suggests. To undo the decades of advertising pressure that has made this symbol such an icon. But how to then also let mothers who need bottles know of them? Why is Medela not playing ball in this.. and further, _how_ can Medela play ball, as any bottle image will bring this connotation of wholesome, artificial, goodness? To me, the answer is quite simple. All they have to do is first of all uphold the image of the breast, and breastfeeding. If you are talking about pumping and bottle feeding expressed breast milk - let your first and largest image be of a breastfeeding baby. Make the iconic connection to the Madonna and Child first and foremost, and then make statements of supporting that bond by also supplying pumps and bottles. But place the breastfeeding mother and baby first. Never advertise using images of bottles and teats. Advertise with images of the baby feeding at the breast. Only ever supply images of bottles, when you are actually listing them for purchase, and then be careful to undercut the iconic stereotype by also putting ii in direct context of breastfeeding: apicture f a mother breastfeeding at home, with her thinking of her baby at daycare, nurtured by her milk in a bottle. It appears to me that this is what Medela are not doing, and this is why what they are doing is so suspect. Why it's such a code breaker. It's not that they are showing an image of a bottle that they sell - it's that they have removed brestfeeding from the picture, and that leaves all the iconic meanings of such a bottle to stand uncontested. They are, in fact, using the previous meaning of the wholesomeness of _the bottle_ to now mean the wholesomeness of their bottle containing _breastmilk_. And, given the wording, I suspect this is a deliberate tactic in order to persuade women not to breastfeed, but to exclusively pump, with all the profit that this brings them. So, we have a retailer who has smelt the change in the wind, and is now aiming to persuade mothers that bottle feeding is still the clean, efficient and 'modern' answer to the problem of having babies. Yes, we can say that pumping is needed to support women: pumps, bottles, sterilisers, freezer containers, warming machines. But these products must be in order to _support breastfeeding_, not to replace it. The Medela site does appear to be all about replacement. This is also ringing other bells, for we are used to seeing formula marketeers 'hijack' breastfeeding to support their own product. Teats that mimic breastfeeding, formula that is almost as good as breastfeeding, dummies that are shaped lile the nipples etc. Medela, and all pumping paraphenlaia companies have a difficult job here. For on one hand, they have to make and sell a product that has as low an impact on breastfeeding itself as they possibly can, on the other they need to explain that clearly to mothers how their products will do their job, so they can make an informed choice. Difficult, but not impossible. A few images of wholesome breastfeeding, a small discussion of why not breastfeeding, only feeding expressed, raises health risks (lack of jaw development, increse in ear infections etc) but coupled with a reassurance that expressed milk at daycare protects against the risks associated with formula etc, and rounding off with a picture of the mother brestfeeding when she gets her baby back home for their "rebonding moment"... and you've fully supported the ethos of breastfeeding whilst managing to market your product without breaking code. In short, if a company is doing what Medela is doing... NOT upholding breastfeeding as the desired norm, printing isolated images of 'the bottle', not discussing increase in health risks by only bottle feeding... its making the transition back to breastfeeding as the norm harder. It's also breaking Code - and Medela need to feel the weight of that, as well as having positive support to change their practises. Morgan Gallagher *********************************************** Archives: http://community.lsoft.com/archives/LACTNET.html To reach list owners: [log in to unmask] Mail all list management commands to: [log in to unmask] COMMANDS: 1. To temporarily stop your subscription write in the body of an email: set lactnet nomail 2. To start it again: set lactnet mail 3. To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet 4. To get a comprehensive list of rules and directions: get lactnet welcome