Gonneke -- I feel your pain. This is why WHO Code interpretation makes me pull my hair out. What the heck *is* the difference between "selling" and "marketing?" I think you'd be hard-pressed to find an advertising exexcutive who'd say that showing pictures or samples of an item is *not* a form of marketing. It may be a low-key form of marketing, but isn't a way to show someone, "Hey, buy me!" And isn't that marketing?
Pat -- I feel your pain too. Marketing directly-to-health care providers is a WHO Code no-no. And galling to boot.
Now, as a lawyer, I have suffered through years of lawyer jokes ... but I gotta tell you, I think the legal communities around the world have got the right process. You go to court, argue what the definitions ought to be, and let the judge write an opinion that decides it all: "It is the opinion of the court that having a bottle on a shelf in a supermarket is marketing." Then, you have some precedent, and the Rule of Law requires that it be respected henceforth [within the boundaries of that court's jurisdiciton] UNLESS you can carve yourself a tidy exception.
So, the next imaginary guy comes along, and tries to figure out a loophole. That case goes to court. The new judge writes a new opinion: "The other court said having a bottle on a shelf in a supermarket is marketing. But this is a different set of facts. Here, the bottle was inside a package that didn't have a picture on it -- just the word "bottle". We declare that this is not marketing."
I'm just making this stuff up, folks: don't go off on me. I'm trying to make a point.
We don't have a "WHO Code World Supreme Court" that we can go to, to present these various fact patters, so we can KNOW what is a violation or not. It is largely left up to the interpretation of each individual IBCLC. Heck -- in just one Lactnet Digest, we have seen how wise minds can differ. And there are 17,000 IBCLCs around the world. Add on top of that the millions of "health care providers" who are supposed to respecting the Code, and you've got yourself an Interpretation Nightmare.
It drives me batty, because I am a believer in Truth, Justice and the WHO Code Way. It is just VERY hard for me, as an attorney and litigator, to "declare" that something is Code-worthy, because to do so is largely a matter of personal opinion and interpretation.
Liz Brooks, JD, IBCLC
Wyndmoor, PA, USA
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