Jennifer quoted many moms' formula reviews from the epinions site www.epinions.com.

I wonder how many of these were written and submitted by formula sales reps themselves.  The language and wording does not seem to be "natural every-day" language, but rather more like the "sales talk" I am used to using in sales presentations.  Either these testimonials were written by marketers themselves, or the moms were copying content direct from the advertisements, or they had really internalized the sales messages (scary thought).   Are these moms paid for writing the epinions?  Why would they write these things?

The hospital I birthed at, has an in-house 24-hour "baby channel" on the TV, available free to all, even if you didn't pay for the TV hook-up.  It demonstrated many baby care practices (washing baby, diaper care, etc)  It has a segment on breastfeeding (pretty good), but also had a segment on formula preparation.  It was introduced by 2 "nurses" in plain clothes.  No formula brands were shown or mentioned.  But in the introduction, the "nurses" talked about how feeding method was a "personal choice" based on your "family situation" (No mention of health in that decision).  Then they said that in the course of using formula, you would have the "opportunity" to use formula in "all three of its forms: ready-to-use, concentrate and dry".  Opportunity?????  That's marketing !!!   I'm in awe of these people!  To me, that segment was definitely an example of formula marketing disguised as parenting information.

Janice Reynolds
Consumer Rep, Breastfeeding Committee for Canada
former sales/marketing professional, who now remembers that I once interviewed for a sales position for Wyeth (pre-marriage, pre-kids) and wonders how that would have changed my life/health if I had gotten that "good job" with a big pharmacuetical co.????
And I wonder if I could still use my resume to apply again and go "undercover" to infiltrate the other side?

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