In my advocacy letters on this issue, I've been saying that LLL and
others have been promoting bf on its 'benefits' for nearly 50 years
now and where has it gotten us? We have a nation of women who KNOW
that bf is best, but still choose not to.  Why?  They don't know that
there is any downside to not bf!  50 years of 'positive' bf promotion
has given the public only half the story.  We need to get the risks
message out there.

I hope that this point gets made frequently enough in our letters to
enter the consciousness of the decision-makers.

Margaret
Longmont, CO

At 12:27 PM -0500 12/28/03, Ann Perry wrote:
>This quote is from the transcript regarding use of negative messages:
>
>     But public health experts say the choice to breast-feed is complicated,
>and advocates concede they're right. Susan Scrimshaw thinks socioeconomic
>issues make designing public health messages tricky. She's dean of
>the School of
>Public Health at the University of Illinois, Chicago.
>
>Dean SUSAN SCRIMSHAW (School of Public Health, University of Illinois,
>Chicago): In general, you get further with positive than you do with negative.
>
>JONES: She says playing on parents' fears may work briefly but will
>eventually be tuned out. In response to the controversy, Christina Pearson, a
>spokesperson for the HHS Office of Women's Health, acknowledges that
>the ads are being
>revised.
>
>
>So am I to assume that Susan Scrimshaw was this out spoken during the car
>safety ads, cigarette ads, or choke safety ads?  For those who prefer the
>positive approach, those messages have been out there for a long
>time without that
>much improvement in increasing the breastfeeding statistics.  Now is
>the time to
reach those who need to see the negative side.

             ***********************************************

To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail
To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest)
To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
All commands go to [log in to unmask]

The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html