Big Giant Enfamil Ad/ Display at airport

[AmandaBL]

Titled: "Giving Infants The Best Possible Start In Life"
:Puke

I get off a tiny commuter plane in evansville IN, while traveling to the unexpected funeral of my DH grandmother. I leave the "gate area" (there's maybe 3 "gates) and pass the lone TSA screener welcoming everyone. I head to the main hall, and there behind a BIG plexiglass window are tons of cans of enfamil with a company timeline & lots of "information" The plant either IS located there, or WAS located there, I'm not sure. But it really pissed me off because of the above title & the information about how much they help out developing countries by providing free formula. Not even the token "while breastfeeding is best,..." line.

Emails, anyone???

[e-mail] airport manager, Robert Working
[e-mail] asst mgr, Gene Olson
[e-mail] marketing director, Nelson Bailes

[Meiri]

So much for truth in advertising.

I adopted the "find the lie in this ad" method of teaching our kids about how advertising works years ago. That one would have been too easy, not to mention begging for the lesson to be taught at the top of our lungs.

[Cranberry]

Originally Posted by AmandaBL

Titled: "Giving Infants The Best Possible Start In Life"

Ugh. :

[darwinphish]

It should be illegal to advertise formula.

[Arwyn]

[Momtwice]

Originally Posted by darwinphish

It should be illegal to advertise formula.

It is in dozens of countries. Never the US of course.

[zeldabee]

I used to work for the ad agency that handled the Enfamil account. I was pretty reconciled to working for an ad agency, and it wasn't so bad overall...but the Enfamil account really bothered me. I always avoided working on Enfamil jobs (luckily it was only a small percentage of my department's work), but sometimes I'd be stuck with it. I once worked on a marketing analysis presentation, and it had lots of graphs showing their target demographics and how they market to each of them...those who always intended to FF, those who intended to try, all the way to the strong BF advocates--I guess that would be us--and broken down in timelines...prenatal, 2 weeks postpartum, 3 months postpartum, and so on. Obviously they don't bother trying to sell to us, but there were different campaigns geared toward each of the other segments. The assumption was that they had a shot at winning over all but the hard-core advocates.

I'm sure all this is no suprise to anyone--it wasn't to me--but it was so chilling to see it all laid out like that.

At this agency, we used to get emails from various teams working on different products--sort of informal, cheap, in-house focus groups. I once got one asking for input from new or expectant mothers for an Enfamil campaign. They basically wanted some sound bites, or little quotes from mothers for ads. I responded by telling them that not only did I breastfeed, considered formula feeding to be a last resort to prevent babies from going hungry, and went to considerable trouble to pump for my baby, but also I used the handy Enfamil tote bag I received from the hospital to keep my pump kit in at work.

They never got back to me.

Another time, they asked for parenting advice for new mothers. I responded by saying that I recommended any new mother consult an IBCLC right at the get-go, and not to decide that they'd try to breastfeed, but to do it. And so on. Do you think they got back to me that time? I'll just leave you in suspense.

[ber]

...

[Earthy~Mama]

Originally Posted by pisces79

As my cousin said to me "Why would I BF? Formula is the same thing."

That is so sad!

I will definitly send off some emails! Too bad I didn't live there or I would pay a visit with my tandem nurslings!

[AmandaBL]

I emailed them all (I didn't notice the R U Working one. That's pretty funny!) before posting here, but have not yet gotten a resopnse. I asked them what the cost of the display was & if they'd be interested in honoring the WHO code if I could raise enpugh $ locally to replace the ad. I'm interested in hearing their response. I may be flying back to that airport in the next few months, and if I can work it right & may just stop by to talk to these guys in person. That would be fun! Where do I get those "This Violates the WHO Code!!!" stickers again? haha