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 *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html