NABA is just completing the US country report for the recent Code  monitoring 
project we conducted. A recent Government Accountability Office (GAO)  report 
showed that infant formula advertising in the USA has increased from  about 
7000 ads in 1999 to over 10,000 in 2004, totaling 40,000 during this  time. 
Formula companies spent $29 million in 1999 for TV and print ads,  increasing to 
$46 million in 2004, for a total of $223 million during this time.  This is 
probably an underestimate. TV ads from Nestle are common. Advertising  has 
become more aggressive, especially if breastfeeding rates go up and birth  rates go 
down. Much of the print advertising is false and misleading, helping to  
deceive parents and health care providers into recommending and using the  
products. Formula companies fight hard to make sure nothing interrupts their  
essentially unrestricted and unmonitored peddling of the products. Most of the  
challenges to formula advertising comes from rival formula companies, not from  the 
Federal Trade Commission where it should. They don't file lawsuits and go  
through the court system because it is expensive and invites negative publicity  
and attention from regulatory agencies. They typically use the Better 
Business  Bureau to mediate disputes but are not required to abide by any decisions 
made  in that venue.
 
The hospital gift bags are an important part of their marketing strategy.  If 
you go to _www.banthebags.org_ (http://www.banthebags.org)  there is  a lead 
article on the home page discussing the recent Ross Products recall of  
discharge kits with defective formula and suggestions on how to take advantage  of 
this. It's always amazing that hospitals will give out these "gifts", not  
record the lot numbers of which bags were given to which mother, and then be  
totally unable to warn parents of defective formulas in the bags during a  recall. 
Talk about liability!
 
In print ads, sometimes the citations for the claims do not even relate to  
the claim or justify the statement. I have been asked numerous times when the  
new US country report will be available. We are hoping to have it published  
by the end of the year but are in great need of funding for the printing of 
hard  copies. Too bad NABA doesn't have the ad budget of the formula companies!
 
Marsha Walker, RN, IBCLC
Weston, MA

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