Marsha said.
<<Medela distributes feeding bottles and nipples which are covered under
the Code. This obligates the company to market them in a manner consistent
with the Code. The Code does not need to be reviewed to allow Medela to
market feeding bottles and nipples inappropriately.>>
Perhaps we need to stop calling it the WHO Code (shorthand) and refer to
it by its full name so that people will begin to understand what Marsha and
Liz and most recently Robyn -- and many others -- have tried to explain:
It is the International Code of the MARKETING of Breast-milk Substitutes.
That said, I received a flyer in the mail while I was gone last week --
Medela's 2010 Co-op Advertising Program. In essence, it is for those who
sell/rent Medela products to be reimbursed for your marketing effors. Without
going into the entire thing (it's a long flyer), your ad must include a
Medela 2-Phase Expression technology breastpump (phot and name) and the words
2-Phase Expression. The ad must include a Medela product (phot and name)
from one of the following categories: BPS-free Breastmilk Bottles, Baby
Scale, Intimate Apparel, Tender Care Products.
Now, if you are selling/renting Medela products and want to take advantage
of this offer, you do NOT have to market their "breastmilk bottles" -- you
can market something else. But the fact that they expect people to
advertise their bottles is directly against the International Code of the
MARKETING of Breast-milk Substitutes, AKA, the WHO Code. The fact that they
MARKET their bottles and teats, pictures and all, is directly against the Code.
The fact that they refer to them as "Breastmilk Bottles" (as though they
will explode if a mother puts formula, water, juice, sweet tea or coke in
them -- well, maybe they will, if the latter) truly offends ME. And that has
nothing to do with the Code. It makes me feel grimy, as though Medela is
trying to whitewash the advertising of their bottles by calling them
"Breastmilk" bottles.
We've come a long way since 1985 when I first started renting pumps for
Medela...when it was a little company where you could meet with the president
and express your opinions. When what an LC said to them actually mattered.
Yup, we've come a long way baby, and I think most of the direction has
been downhill.
OTOH, why should they care -- as with most companies -- profit is what
matters. Not customer good-will.
Ranting over. But please remember, it is the "International Code of the
MARKETING of Breast-milk Substitutes."
Jan Barger, RN, MA, IBCLC, FILCA
Lactation Education Consultants
_www.lactationeducation.com_ (http://www.lactationeducation.com/)
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