Dear All:

Well, I heard repeated again and again - you don't have to use the posters
that you don't like!!!   The consistent message I heard at the ILCA
conference was that these were tested with various focus groups and there
is something for everyone.  Pick the ones you like - or, perhaps more
appropriately, the ones your target groups like since these are not
intended for those of us who are pro-breastfeeding but to get those who may
not have considered breastfeeding to think about it.

Personally, I loved the dandelions!  I found it very subtle adn visually
pleasing.  The otoscopes were a challenge to interpret.  This shows you how
much this fifth-generation Californian has changed to a New Yorker
mentality from my 11 years of living here.  I thought that they were the
bottoms of the expresso maker!  But I was amused when I figured it out.  It
made me stop and think, which I think is important with these ads.  Now the
one that I think will go over best in Manhattan is the ice cream.  I mean
really - we have Calvin Klein ads on our buses and barely pubescent girls
pulling down their skits to crotch-line with a rolled up teeshirt on ads
for radio stations.  The former mayor stopped funding for the artwork at
the Brooklyn Museum because it had elephant dung paintings - and what about
Robert Maplethorpe.  Here, two ice cream scoops are hardly going to cause
ripples.  The response from the nurses and pediatricians I've shown these
ads to has been enthusiastic and every one seems to have a favorite.

For me, my favorite is the ice cream for its public health message.  Who
could resist that after watching Katherine Shealy's presentation on the
march of obestity across this country.  Even I, a nutritional
epidemiologist by training, had my jaw on the floor when she was done with
her graphic of the rapid increase in obesity over the last decade.  Now, I
have decided that watching "Super Size Me" is a must see.  For visual
beauty, nothing beats the dandelions - and for amusement value the
otoscopes are it.

We MUST do something to change the media perversion of the basic function
of the breast.  Farah Fawcett (now I'm dating myself) was famous for her
nipple poster - Why should that be accepted in our culture when feeding
babies the way they were intended is so shocking?

In addition to living in Manhattan, perhaps the years of living in Zaire
(now Democratic Republic of Congo) changes my perspective as well.  Breasts
were not sexual objects (as Kathy Dettwyler has so profoundly expressed in
her talks when she mentioned that most cultures don't consider them).  BUT -
 thighs and butts were considered very enticing - the bigger the better.
It took me about 10 years after that experience to feel comfortable wearing
shorts!

I'm sure we will all have different reactions - and the discussion
resulting from these reactions is absolutely important to our changing our
culture from a baby unfriendly one in which the basic fundamental first
step towards good health is seen in a perverted light infused with sexual
associations that are not appropriate and not healthy for our infants.

Susan E. Burger, MHS, PhD, IBCLC

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