For those of you who wanted to see what the actual text was from the
show, here is the official transcript:

                        CBS News Transcripts

SHOW: The Early Show (7:00 AM ET) - CBS

                        December 31, 2003 Wednesday

TYPE: Interview

LENGTH: 979 words

HEADLINE: Amy Spangler of the US Breastfeeding Committee and Dr. Carden
Johnston of the American Academy of Pediatrics talk about a national ad
campaign pushing breast-feeding of infants

ANCHORS: HANNAH STORM

BODY:
HANNAH STORM, co-host:
The largest government-sponsored advertising campaign to promote
breast-feeding has come under fire even before its launch. Critics claim
that the print, radio and television ads are using unnecessary scare
tactics to convince women to breast-feed their children.
Amy Spangler heads the US Breastfeeding Committee, and she helped to
develop to the ads. And Dr.  Carden Johnston is the president of the
American Academy of Pediatrics.  He is against the campaign's message. 
Good morning to both of you.
Ms. AMY SPANGLER (Chairman, US Breastfeeding Committee): Good morning,
Hannah.
STORM: Ms. Spangler...
Dr. CARDEN JOHNSTON (President, American Academy of Pediatrics): Good
morning, Hannah.
STORM: ...could I start with you?  Because these ads were supposed to be
run by the Department of Health and Human Services starting in December.
The ad campaign has not been launched. You were one of the few people
who's actually seen the ads.  Can you describe them for us?
Ms. SPANGLER: The ads were really very diverse in their focus. They draw
upon humor, they draw upon all of the factual information that we have
available to us concerning the risks that are attached to babies not
being breast-fed and the acute and chronic diseases that can result when
babies are not breast-fed, so they cover print media, there were some
that were created for television spots, some that were created for
billboards, magazines, newspapers and radio.  And my encouragement in
seeing all of the ads and the reassurance that I gained from seeing them
was that I was able to view them with a fairly large audience of more
than 100 health-care providers and the reaction of the health-care
providers was refreshing in that everybody found something in the
campaign that they could relate to, that they found appealing, that they
found compelling, and it gave me that assurance that indeed, the ad
agency, the Ad Council and the Office on Women's Health have done a
wonderful job in pulling together a very comprehensive campaign that all
of us hope will be quite effective.
STORM: And yet, it has stirred up quite some controversy.  I'd like to
describe one of the ads.  One of the ads shows a pregnant woman riding a
mechanical bull and the announcer says, 'You'd never take risks while
you're pregnant.  Why start when the baby's born?' This seems to be, Dr.
Johnston, very shocking and scare tactics, and I--I know that you're
very uncomfortable with this.  Why?
Dr. JOHNSTON: We're for the positive aspects of breast-feeding.  For a
mother to sit down and--and breast-feed her baby and watch that baby
grow, that's one of the most exciting things that can happen. It's
positive.  It should be a wonderful, nurturing experience.  We want
women to be able to choose to breast-feed and do that for a positive
reasons and not feel intimidated or scared to be breast-fed.  We are for
the breast-feeding campaign.  We want to support it, we want to
encourage it, but we want it to be scientifically accurate, credible and
we'd love it to be positive. Pediatricians raise their children and
support their families with positive, nurturing experiences, not with
scare tactics. So I'd rather it be a positive, not negative.  But we
love the campaign and we love what Amy is doing.
STORM: Isn't it possible, Ms. Spangler, to get your message out there to
educate women without scaring them, or women who can't breast-feed for a
variety of reasons? Maybe they have a job, maybe there are physical
reasons, but not making them feel guilty for not being able to do so?
Ms. SPANGLER: Well, Hannah, I probably would need to disagree with Dr.
Johnston that the campaign is negative in its focus and that we are
attempting to scare mothers or cause them to feel guilty.  What the
campaign is really doing is sharing information and there's no studies
to show that sharing information and helping people make informed
choices in any way contributes to them feeling guilty about that choice,
whatever it might be.
I think it's important for everyone to understand that the strategy of
this campaign, which is risk-focused in nature--in other words, it says
baby-sitter, not breast-fed, all right, greater risk for developing any
one of a variety of conditions, and the reason that focus was chosen was
because 36 focus groups were coordinated across the US and this campaign
is not just for mothers.  This campaign is for all of the individuals in
this society who are in a position to support a mother's choice to
breast-feed her child. This cam...
STORM: Ms. Spangler, I--I think virtually all experts around the country
and both of you agree that breast-feeding is by far the best option, not
just for babies...
Dr. JOHNSTON: Absolutely.
STORM: ...but also for--for the health of the mother.  But I'm
wondering, Dr. Johnston, what is your biggest fear about this campaign
in particular, how it will it affect mothers?  Do you think it'll
actually turn some people off?
Dr. JOHNSTON: Well, what I'm afraid of is that if women should be
choose--should choose to breast-feed, but if they should not choose to
breast-feed for a very good reason, and end up with a bad outcome baby,
then the guilt that that mother would have would be excessive, and that
falls in the pediatrician's lap.  And more than that, society then,
having seen some of these negative ads, would give a perception of
failure to that parent.  It makes an unpleasant situation even more
unpleasant.
STORM: The last thing you want is a stigma on women who make the choice
not to breast-feed.
Dr. JOHNSTON: Absolutely.
STORM: We appreciate it.
Dr. JOHNSTON: Choose to breast-feed.
STORM: Both you, Amy Spangler...
Dr. JOHNSTON: Thanks, Hannah.
STORM: Dr. Carden Johnston, thank you both.
Ms. SPANGLER: Thanks, Hannah.
STORM: We'll be right back.
(Announcements)

LOAD-DATE: December 31, 2003





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