Friday, August 07, 2009

Links to company contact pages to take action over unethical baby food marketing

Have you sent messages to the companies that put infants at risk by pushing baby milk in ways that breach the marketing standards adopted by the World Health Assembly? That contravene the right of mothers' to receive accurate information on formula? Cases were highlighted on our Campaign for Ethical Marketing action sheet for July 2009, which is available on our website at:

You can send messages via company websites. I only give the general link to the site as the companies keep moving the specific contact page, perhaps trying to shake us off.

But for now, those below work. On the campaign sheet you find a suggested message that you can cut and paste into the comment box on the company website and edit as you see fit (though I prefer it if people don't get abusive as this may be used against the campaign!)

Nestlé - for claiming its formula 'protects' when children fed on it are more likely to become sick than breastfed babies, and other cases.

Danone - requesting that it respects the Advertising Standards Authority ruling against claims it makes about Aptamil and Cow & Gate formula, and removes the untrue claims from all materials and labels. Danone is the parent company, owning Nutricia, Milupa and Cow & Gate brands (and it is Milupa Aptamil). They may pass it on to the subsidiary company, but we want to reach the people at the top of the empire so they know people are concerned. It is Danone that may face a consumer boycott in the future if it does not take action. It is starting to rival Nestlé for malpractice, particularly in Asia as it tries to compete.

You can find Danone country sites at:

The UK site is:

Mead Johnson - for making untrue claims about its Enfamil formula (claims similar to those the ASA ruled against in the Danone case, above).

The US site contact form requires US address information, information on children in the family and offers free samples. I was able to submit the form, putting in my real address, with the Mead Johnson Zip code (477421). The link is:

I also tried the UK site at:

You can find address and fax numbers via these links.

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