A report produced today by the National Childbirth Trust (NCT) and Save the Children and UNICEF UK, claims baby milk manufacturers are still illegally advertising formula milk to mothers by taking advantage of loopholes in the law.
Tuesday 7 August 2007
The report, "A weak formula for legislation: how loopholes in the law are putting babies at risk" (PDF 992KB), is calling for a complete advertising ban to close these legal loopholes (1) and protect children and their parents.
The report is to be released during World Breastfeeding Week and is to coincide with the Government and the Food Standards Agency's current review of existing legislation. The three organisations are calling on the Government to strengthen the 1995 law that made it illegal to advertise formula milk in the UK by adopting the WHO Code of Marketing Breastmilk Substitutes.
The report is calling on the Government to:
- ban the promotion of 'follow-on-formula' (for babies over six months)
- stop formula milk companies from using their company name or logo on leaflets and in magazines as a form of advertising (2).
Organisations say the marketing of baby formula milk undermines those who want to breastfeed and leaves many parents confused about how to feed their baby. Studies have shown that fewer women breastfeed and many stop earlier than intended as a result of formula milk advertising. Formula feeding mothers also find it hard to access reliable information and understand the facts about the various products available.
It has been well documented that babies who are breastfed are protected from infections (diarrhoea, pneumonia) and long term diseases (diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity). Mothers who breastfeed are also protected from breast and ovarian cancer and bone disease.
The World Health Organisation, UK government and voluntary organisations all recommend breastfeeding as the healthiest way to feed a baby. Manufacturers of formula milk, however, make phenomenal profit from mothers who don’t breastfeed (it costs around £650 a year to feed a baby on formula milk). Companies also spend ten times more money advertising baby milk than the Government spends supporting breastfeeding.
Belinda Phipps, Chief Executive, NCT charity, said: "A weak law makes feeding decisions more difficult for all parents. In similar ways to how tobacco companies found their way through loopholes in legislation restricting the advertising of cigarette promotion, formula milk companies are finding ways to exploit ambiguity in the law and to continue aggressively marketing their products to parents. We need to close the loopholes, strengthen the law and protect both mothers that plan to breastfeed and those that formula feed from this commercial tug of war for their money."
Michael '’Donnell, Head of Hunger Reduction at Save the Children, said: "The law that is supposed to stop formula milk companies from promoting their products and protect babies and parents is not working. Formula companies are finding increasingly devious ways to beat the ban and continue to bombard parents with misleading information about the alleged similarities of breast and bottle. The law must be tightened up - the government must close these loopholes once and for all."
Andrew Radford, Deputy Director, UNICEF UK, says: "The Government has regularly stated that it wants to adopt World Health Organisation recommendations, which would prohibit formula adverts, but has continually failed to act on these promises in the UK.
"We are, therefore, calling on the Government to prohibit all formula milk advertising, so that parents can feed their babies using accurate information, free from commercial pressure."
Charities are encouraging members of the public to join the campaign for a complete advertising ban and protect the health of mothers and babies by writing to the Secretary of State for Health - Alan Johnson - citing their concern. For more information visit www.nct.org.uk or www.savethechildren.org.uk or www.unicef.org.uk.
-Ends-
Notes to editors
- Copies of the report are available from Save the Children: 0207 012 6844
- Broadcast quality video footage of mothers talking about the benefits of breastfeeding and the aggressive marketing techniques of formula companies is available from Save the Children: 0207 012 6844
For media enquiries
For copies of the report, video footage or to arrange an interview, please contact:
- Nicola Ryan, Media Relations Manager, National Childbirth Trust, Tel: 020 8752 2404 or email: n_ryan@nct.org.uk
- Kathryn Rawe, Media Officer, Save the Children, Tel: 020 7012 6844 or email: k.rawe@savethechildren.org.uk
- Shima Islam, Senior Media Officer, UNICEF UK, Tel: 020 7312 7614 or email: email: shimai@unicef.org.uk
References
1. The loopholes are:
- Advertising formula milk for babies under six months is illegal, but advertising it for babies over six months is allowed (follow-on-formula). Companies, therefore, ensure that the packaging and advertising of formula milks for younger and older babies are almost identical, so that an advert for one automatically promotes the other.
- To prevent 'health educational' materials for parents from being used to promote specific products, the law bans companies from putting the name of their formula milk brands on any information they provide to mothers. However, they are allowed to put their company logo on it. So companies made changes to ensure that the company logo and the milk brand name are identical to each other, thus meaning that names and logos on information materials is both legal and illegal at the same time, allowing companies to promote their milks, but making it impossible for Trading Standards to enforce the law.
2. Latest Ipsos-Mori poll survey shows that almost three quarters of women surveyed associated a company logo with advertising for infant formula milk - 71% of women associated the SMA logo with advertising for infant formula milk.
For public enquiries
Find out more about the campaign and take our online action calling on Alan Johnson to put babies health before profit.