Pat Thomas wrote that she had reported Target "for major violations of the
WHO Code, they had formula advertised WITH pictures of infants on them. "
I, too, wrote to them about this violation of the International Code of
Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes.  I wrote several times, both to their
corporate address and to their e-mail address.  I received only
acknowledgement of my letter and a sentence saying that is a purchasing
decision...they have no control over the label...blah blah blah.

I wrote IBFAN to report this violation also and received a note from them.
I have been told by an IBFAN member I met at the LLLI conference that the
best thing to do is buy a can of the Target-brand formula and send the label
to IBFAN.  I haven't been able to bring myself to spend the money on that.
But when I checked a week ago, they still have a picture of a baby on their
formula - this is the same label that is on all of their store brand
products including diapers, diaper wipes, etc.

I also checked the baby section of the Target ad for my region at
http://target.com/weeklyad/pageview.asp?R=1&C=1&P=12 and I see that they are
advertising breast pumps on sale.  Is this a violation of the Code?  I am
not sure.  Does anyone else know?  I checked
http://www.ibfan.org/english/codewatch/monitor02.html  where there is a
brief overview of how to spot a code violation and, while "Labels which have
pictures of babies or pictures or text which idealise the use of infant
formula" is listed, I don't see breast pumps listed as an item covered by
the Code.

Sara Dodder Furr, breastfeeding advocate and volunteer
Lincoln, Nebraska USA

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