Hi LactNetters
The New York Times published a long article today about the formula companies, the AAP, and the delay of the NBAC.:
Breastfeeding Ads Delayed By a Dispute Over Content
By Melody Petersen

    Federal officials have softened a national advertising campaign to promote breastfeeding after complaints from two companies that make infant formula, according to several doctors and nurses who are helping the government with the effort.
    A newsletter distributed by the Ad Council, a nonprofit group developing the advertisements for the government, said that the Department of Health and Human Services planned to begin the campaign this month. But Christina Pearson, a spokeswoman for the department, said yesterday that it was not clear when the advertisements would begin.
    Today, Kevin Keane, the department’s assistant secretary for public affairs, plans to meet with a group of breastfeeding experts who have been working on the campaign to discuss changes to the ads, according to people invited to the meeting. The campaign includes television, radio and print public service announcements.
    The original campaign focused on “the risks associated with not breastfeeding,” according to the Ad Council’s newsletter, and included statistics form studies that have found that babies fed formula have a higher risk of developing asthma, diabetes, leukemia and other illnesses.
    According to the newsletter, one planned spot, titled “Roller Derby,” showed pregnant women roller skating. The voiceover said: “You’d never take risks while you’re pregnant. Why start when the baby’s born?”
    Ms. Pearson said that the information in the newsletter was preliminary and should not have been released.
     Peter Paradossi, a spokesman for Mead Johnson, the Bristol-Meyers Squibb division that makes Enfamil formulas, said the company supported a campaign to promote the benefits of breastfeeding, but that the planned ads went too far.
    “We worried it would give an impression that infant formula is unhealthy and potentially dangerous,” he said.
    Tracey Noe, a spokeswoman for Ross Products, the Abbott Laboratories unit that makes Similac, said her company also supported projects promoting breastfeeding. But she said Ross executives were concerned that claims made in the government’s campaign were not based on solid science. “The overall approach was like a scare tactic,” Ms. Noe said.
    After the two companies and the top officials of the American Academy of Pediatrics complained to federal health officials, the government decided to eliminate spots discussing the risk of leukemia and diabetes in babies not breastfed, said Amy Spangler, the chairwoman of the United States Breastfeeding Committee, a group that promotes breastfeeding. According to the Ad Council newsletter, those ads said that babies not breastfed had a 30 percent increased risk of developing leukemia and up to a 40 percent increased risk of developing diabetes.
    Ms. Spangler, a nurse who over the last year has been helping the government develop the ads, said that a federal official told her of the recent changes. She said that government officials still planned to say in the ads that infants who are not breastfed face a higher risk of developing obesity and ear infections, but they have removed all specific statistics on the estimated level of risk.
    Ms. Pearson declined to specify how the ads had been changed, but said that the ads had been continuously modified as they were reviewed by government scientists. “We are very committed to doing this campaign and doing it right,” she said.
    The campaign has divided physician members of the Amercian Academy of Pediatrics. Dr. Joe M. Sanders Jr., the academy’s executive director, and Dr. carden Johnston, its president, sent a letter to Tommy G. Thompson, secretary of health and human services, in early November expressing their concern about the tone of the campaign and the soundness of the science providing the base for some of its claims. Tht upset the academy’s own breastfeeding experts, who had been working with the government on the ads and supported their aggressive message.
    Dr. Lawrence M. Gartner, the former chairman of the pediatrics department at the University of Chicago and current chairman of the academy’s executive committee on breastfeeding, said he believed that academy officials might have sent the letter to appease formula manufacturers; some of them are large financial donors to the group.
    “There is a lot of money involved,” Dr. Gartner Said.
    But Dr. Sanders and Dr. Johnston said that the companies’ financial contributions had nothing to do with their criticism of the campaign. They said they had decided to send their letter before Ross executives expressed their concerns at the academy’s national conference, held last month in New Orleans.
    Dr. Sanders said that some members of the academy were concerned that the advertisements could make mothers who chose not to breastfeed feel guilty if their child later developed leukemia or another medical condition. Instead of emphasizing the risks of not breastfeeding, he said, the campaign should emphasize breastfeeding’s benefits.
    Ross was one of the top three corporate donors to the academy’s budget in 2001, giving more that $500,000, Dr. Sanders said last year. Dr. Sander’s staff said yesterday that more recent information was not available.
    Last year, Ross purchased 300,000 copies of the academy’s latest book on breastfeeding. Dr. Sanders said he would not disclose how much the company paid for those books, whish it is distributing to new mothers. He said last year that the academy had made a profit of no more than $500,000 from the initial book purchase by Ross. Dr. Gartner said that Ross recently purchased another 300,000 copies.
    Ms. Spangler said she believed that the campaign would still be effective in persuading mothers to breastfeed. But other breastfeeding advocates expressed disappointment with changes that they said had weakened the message.
    Marsha Walker, who sits on the leadership team of the United States Breastfeeding Committee with Ms. Spangler, said that the information on leukemia and diabetes should be left in the ads.
    “I’m a registered nurse, and we would never withhold information from our patients because we thought it might make them feel guilty,” Ms. Walker said. “This is being shot down by an industry that has no business interfering. Ultimately it hurts the health of our babies and our moms.
The NYT link is:http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/04/business/media/04adcol.html

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