Following the recent exchange on BMS, CHIFA members may be interested in the paper described below. It is available through open access from the journal (URL below)
Selling second best: how infant formula marketing works
Gerard Hastings, Kathryn Angus, Douglas Eadie and Kate Hunt.
BMC Globalization and Health (2020) 16:77 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12992-020-00597-w
Background: Despite the clear policy intent to contain it, the marketing of formula milk remains widespread,
powerful and successful. This paper examines how it works.
Methods: The study comprised a mix of secondary analysis of business databases and qualitative interviews with
marketing practitioners, some of whom had previously worked in formula marketing.
Results: The World Health Assembly Code aims to shield parents from unfair commercial pressures by stopping the inappropriate promotion of infant formula. In reality marketing remains widespread because some countries (e.g. the USA) have not adopted the Code, and elsewhere industry has developed follow-on and specialist milks with which they promote formula by proxy. The World Health Assembly has tried to close these loopholes by extending its Code to these products; but the marketing continues. The campaigns use emotional appeals to reach out to and build relationships with parents and especially mothers. Evocative brands give these approaches a human face.
The advent of social media has made it easier to pose as the friend and supporter of parents; it is also providing companies with a rich stream of personal data with which they hone and target their campaigns.
The formula industry is dominated by a small number of extremely powerful multinational corporations with the
resources to buy the best global marketing expertise. Like all corporations they are governed by the fiduciary
imperative which puts the pursuit of profits ahead of all other concerns. This mix of fiscal power, sophisticated
marketing, and single-mindedness is causing great harm to public health.
Conclusions: Formula marketing is widespread and using powerful emotional techniques to sell parents a product that is vastly inferior to breast milk. There is an urgent need to update and strengthen regulation.
Best wishes
Nigel
Nigel Rollins MD FRCPCh
Department of Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health and Ageing
World Health Organization
Avenue Appia 20
CH-1211 Geneva 27
Switzerland
CHIFA Profile: Nigel Rollins joined the Department of Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health at WHO in July 2008. His work focuses primarily implementation research and prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV through infant feeding. He is also involved with broader paediatric issues including health systems research and severe malnutrition. He works at the WHO Head Quarters in Geneva.
Email: rollinsn AT who.int
