"Let's pretend no one has sex until they are married and then we won't have to deal with it." Is this not what we are doing with bottles and teets with mothers?" No it is most definitely not. Advertising is not information. Advertising is most certainly not education. It is persuasion. If you believe anything else you have bought the lie that is the marketing industry. I urge you to read an undergraduate marketing communications text - or google Behavioural Learning Theory and Advertising - or classical conditioning and advertising - or operant conditioning and advertising. (I recommend Rossiter and Bellman 2005 or the most recent edition of Belch and Belch - after that, read one of the big branding texts and if you're not yet convinced, read Great Expectorations which gives an account of another industry's efforts in the area of 'educating the public' about it's products.) It will disabuse you of the notion that consumers (mothers) and advertisers are operating on anything like a level playing field. Marketing is not rocket science. It is waayyy more complex than that. Suggesting that mothers get infant feeding information from companies who sell infant feeding products is like suggesting that teenagers get sex education from companies who sell sex (or STI treatments). No one likes to believe that their behaviour is affected by advertising - as Renee has so eloquently illustrated - but the BILLIONS of dollars invested in advertising every year suggest that we are deluded if we deny that advertising influences our behaviour. Advertising influences every one of us, not because we are gullible but because is very very sophisticated. The intent of the Code is to protect mothers from advertising and to ensure that the infant feeding information they receive comes from impartial sources, is evidence based and not affected by a commercial conflict of interest. Don't buy the industry's lie that advertising does nothing more than convince mothers to switch brands. (Does that line sound familiar? It was also used by another industry when faced with advertising bans.) Nina Berry Trying very hard not to comment from Australia on the absurdity that passes for sex ed in parts of the US. *********************************************** Archives: http://community.lsoft.com/archives/LACTNET.html To reach list owners: [log in to unmask] Mail all list management commands to: [log in to unmask] COMMANDS: 1. To temporarily stop your subscription write in the body of an email: set lactnet nomail 2. To start it again: set lactnet mail 3. To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet 4. To get a comprehensive list of rules and directions: get lactnet welcome