Here is a suggestion for a new-style article that you could send to your local papers
I suggest putting it out with the phone numbers of local experts attached.
Adapt as you see fit - and put your own names on it, not mine!
Feel free to use the quote from Bobbi Philipp
If any of you need people to comment to your local press we are happy to do so, if they call you and ask you for contacts, our phone # is 617 414 6455 (pls don't all call me!!! just if the press wants anyone we can refer them)
I suggest you use your local #s first
Also I suggest you refer them to the NYT article of last Thursday Dec 4 (by Melody Petersen)
hope this helps - Anne

National Breastfeeding Campaign Delayed After Formula Company Pressure

Federal officials have toned down and postponed a national advertising campaign to promote breastfeeding, after complaints from two companies that make infant formula.

The Campaign was slated to launch this fall, but is now on hold until the original public service announcements, developed by the Ad Council, are revised. The leading critics are makers of infant formula, a multibillion-dollar industry.

The leadership of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) also spoke out against the ads., but Dr. Lawrence M. Gartner, chairman of the AAP Executive Committee on Breastfeeding, disagreed with the AAP’s stated concerns. Ross Labs, makers of Similac formula, was one of the top three corporate donors to the AAP in 2001, giving more than $500,000. In 2002, Ross purchased 300,000 copies of the academy’s book on breastfeeding, making a reported profit in the region of $500,000.

The original federal campaign focused on the health risks of not breastfeeding, and included statistics from studies in the medical literature, which show that babies fed formula have a higher risk of developing asthma, diabetes, leukemia and other illnesses.

One PSA which has reportedly been canned, showed pregnant women roller skating at a Roller Derby. The commentary said: “You’d never take risks while you’re pregnant. Why start when the baby’s born?”

The Ad Council is famed for its ‘in your face’ style commercials, which include the Crash Dummies, Friends Don’t Let Friends Drive Drunk, and Smokey Bear. The risk based approach was developed after focus groups demonstrated that talking only about the benefits of breastfeeding was not effective.

“Even the formula companies say ‘breast is best’ in their advertising” said Barbara L. Philipp, MD, a prominent pediatrician and breastfeeding advocate. “That approach doesn’t work. We owe it to women to tell them, there are risks associated with formula feeding, and you need to know about those risks.”

The Campaign aimed to increase US breastfeeding rates, which do not meet Healthy People 2010 goals, and which are particularly low among African American and poor women.

In an interview with the New York Times, Marsha Walker, RN, leader of the National Alliance for Breastfeeding Advocacy, said: “I’m a registered nurse, and we would never withhold information from our patients because we thought it might make them feel guilty. This is being shot down by an industry that has no business interfering. Ultimately it hurts the health of our babies and our moms.”

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