blondina1
27-12-2008, 10:15 AM
Federal breast-feeding ads censored. New ads resulted in less breast-feeding! Written by Peter Rost
The United States has one of the lowest rates of breast-feeding in the developed world. The World Health Organization (http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/World+Health+Organization?tid=informline) recommends that, if at all possible, women breast-feed their infants exclusively for at least six months.
In light of this, it was especially shocking when the Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/30/AR2007083002198_pf.html) today revealed that the federal government has been colluding with the formula industry, to keep breast-feeding rates down, by doing what the lobbyists told them to do - cancel a hard-hitting campaing promoting breast-feeding and run a wishy-washy "nice" ad campaign instead.
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (http://aappolicy.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/pediatrics;115/2/496), breast-feeding decreases the incidence and/or severity of a wide range of infectious diseases and may decrease the rate of sudden infant death syndrome in the first year of life and reduce the incidence of diabetes, lymphoma, leukemia, and Hodgkin disease, overweight and obesity, hypercholesterolemia, and asthma in older children and adults who were breastfed, compared with individuals who were not breastfed.
Below are the images from the two breast-feeding campaigns.
http://www.brandweeknrx.com/images/2007/08/31/nip1_2.jpg (http://brandmediaweek.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/2007/08/31/nip1_2.jpg)
After the 2003-05 period in which the dandelion ads aired, the proportion of mothers who breast-fed in the hospital dropped, from 70 percent in 2002 to 63.6 percent in 2006, according to statistics collected in Abbott Nutrition (http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Abbott+Laboratories+Inc.?tid=informline)'s Ross Mothers Survey. In 2002, 33.2 percent of women were doing any breast-feeding at six months; by 2006, that rate had declined to 30 percent.
The formula industry brought in powerful lobbyists, including Clayton Yeutter, to stop the initial campaign. He was agriculture secretary during the administration of George H.W. Bush. In the end, the feds dropped many of the hard-hitting ads and kept the images of dandelions puffs and ice cream scoops that looked like breasts. In the 2004 letter above, Yeutter thanks the secretary of health and human services for modifying the ad campaign.
Clearly, we have a government that cares more about our corporations than us, the people. Anyone wonder why obesity rates are going through the roof and the government has no idea what to do about it?
Peter Rost, M.D. (http://peterrost.blogspot.com/) is a former VP of Pfizer and the author ofKiller Drug (http://killerdrug.blogspot.com/) and The Whistleblower (http://the-whistleblower-by-peter-rost.blogspot.com/).
SourceBrandweekNRX (http://www.brandweeknrx.com/2007/08/index.html)
The United States has one of the lowest rates of breast-feeding in the developed world. The World Health Organization (http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/World+Health+Organization?tid=informline) recommends that, if at all possible, women breast-feed their infants exclusively for at least six months.
In light of this, it was especially shocking when the Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/30/AR2007083002198_pf.html) today revealed that the federal government has been colluding with the formula industry, to keep breast-feeding rates down, by doing what the lobbyists told them to do - cancel a hard-hitting campaing promoting breast-feeding and run a wishy-washy "nice" ad campaign instead.
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (http://aappolicy.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/pediatrics;115/2/496), breast-feeding decreases the incidence and/or severity of a wide range of infectious diseases and may decrease the rate of sudden infant death syndrome in the first year of life and reduce the incidence of diabetes, lymphoma, leukemia, and Hodgkin disease, overweight and obesity, hypercholesterolemia, and asthma in older children and adults who were breastfed, compared with individuals who were not breastfed.
Below are the images from the two breast-feeding campaigns.
http://www.brandweeknrx.com/images/2007/08/31/nip1_2.jpg (http://brandmediaweek.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/2007/08/31/nip1_2.jpg)
After the 2003-05 period in which the dandelion ads aired, the proportion of mothers who breast-fed in the hospital dropped, from 70 percent in 2002 to 63.6 percent in 2006, according to statistics collected in Abbott Nutrition (http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Abbott+Laboratories+Inc.?tid=informline)'s Ross Mothers Survey. In 2002, 33.2 percent of women were doing any breast-feeding at six months; by 2006, that rate had declined to 30 percent.
The formula industry brought in powerful lobbyists, including Clayton Yeutter, to stop the initial campaign. He was agriculture secretary during the administration of George H.W. Bush. In the end, the feds dropped many of the hard-hitting ads and kept the images of dandelions puffs and ice cream scoops that looked like breasts. In the 2004 letter above, Yeutter thanks the secretary of health and human services for modifying the ad campaign.
Clearly, we have a government that cares more about our corporations than us, the people. Anyone wonder why obesity rates are going through the roof and the government has no idea what to do about it?
Peter Rost, M.D. (http://peterrost.blogspot.com/) is a former VP of Pfizer and the author ofKiller Drug (http://killerdrug.blogspot.com/) and The Whistleblower (http://the-whistleblower-by-peter-rost.blogspot.com/).
SourceBrandweekNRX (http://www.brandweeknrx.com/2007/08/index.html)