Dear Lactnetters,
        This morning I received an email from a health professional who had
misgivings about the offer of an ABM company to sponsor a clinical update on
breastfeeding, by supplying a meal.  She wondered if she were being too
scrupulous.  In view of the issues concerning ABM reps and their gifts which
have been aired on Lactnet lately, I should like to share part of my reply
to her, as I've raised some additional issues.  These include getting out of
the mindset that we can't cater a meal or snack without the companies.
                   Virginia
                   Virginia Thorley, OAM, IBCLC
                   Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

>         You are certainly not being pedantic about this.  This is an
> important issue. You wrote, "It seems like subtle marketing."  It IS. It
is
> one of the more successful marketing ploys which the companies use - it
> creates goodwill and lowers the resistance of health professional to the
> company.  After several incidents like this, suspicion of the company and
its motives is whittled away. Health professionals often say they are too
> sophisticated to be affected by these blandishments, but this has been
seen not to be so. The companies wouldn't do it if it didn't work!  (There
has been some interesting stuff on unconscious bias towards companies in the
British Medical Journal, in relation to research sponsorships.)  These
> marketing ploys, though subtle, are still effective in building goodwill
for the company.
            Associating an artificial milk company with a breastfeeding
> seminar is giving the wrong messages, subtle or not, even if you get to
choose the speakers.  The speakers also get to feel good about the
"generous" company.
>        What is more, your facility *doesn't need* to accept the money and
> can still do some catering without it. *Yes, really!*  The companies just
want you to think you can't do it without them. What a colleague of mine did
at her hospital was to organize some low cost, but tasty, catering and at
the end of her presentation thanked the Queensland Lactation College (local
ILCA affiliate) as sponsors.  She said the paediatricians present  looked
impressed at the college sponsorship and it created goodwill - for a BF
organization, not for some company. Some of the *cleaner* options you could
pursue for getting the catering sponsored are:
>      - local LC organization
>      - wine company/bank/investment company
>      - breastpump company
>      - local babywear or lingerie company
>      Catering can be done quite cheaply per head and still look good, e.g.
> a buffet.
>     Think about it. Companies won't put out money if there isn't something
> in it for them.  They are not benevolent bodies, they are in it for
profits.
> Instead of having the ABM companies getting the goodwill and publicity,
why not have a dialogue with local BF-focused professional bodies or
coalitions about occasional sponsorship?  Then the breastfeeding
organization gets the goodwill, not the ABM company.  The payoff to the
organization includes:
>      - goodwill
>      - publicity
>      - new memberships
> Why should a company whose aims are inimicable to the promotion and
support of breastfeeding get these payoffs?
                                                        Virginia

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