Archive site - new site at www.babymilkaction.org

Nestlé-free zone

You are currently on our archive site.

See the Nestlé boycott section on our new website - http://www.babymilkaction.org/nestle-boycott 

Nestlé is the target of a boycott because it contributes to the unnecessary death and suffering of infants around the world by aggressively marketing baby foods in breach of international marketing standards. 

If you already boycott Nestlé then use the resources on this page to spread the word.

If you want to know why there is a boycott and how you can get involved, read the overview below.

Latest:

Update 46 and Boycott News newsletter: Nestlé's Creative Storytelling Venture exposed and other news.

Email Nestlé: Nestlé claims to believe breastfeeding is the best start in life for a child, but promotes its infant formula around the world with claims such as it "protects" babies and is the "natural start" (click on the poster, left, for examples).

Nestlé-Free Zone stickers - click here.

Nestlé Boycott page on Facebook - click here to become a fan and invite your friends.

As well as boycott materials, our online Virtual Shop has resources for health workers and mother-support groups to provide independent and accurate information. Check out the IBFAN Breastfeeding Calendar 2012 and the Infant Formula Explained DVD.

Boycott overview

You are currently on our archive site.

See the Nestlé boycott section on our new website - http://www.babymilkaction.org/nestle-boycott 

Nestlé is the target of a boycott because it contributes to the unnecessary death and suffering of infants around the world by aggressively marketing baby foods in breach of international marketing standards. Even Nestlé's Public Affairs Manager acknowledges the boycott has widespread support.

The World Health Assembly has adopted marketing requirements for baby foods to protect breastfeeding and to ensure breastmilk substitutes are used safely if necessary. As UNICEF has said:

"Marketing practices that undermine breastfeeding are potentially hazardous wherever they are pursued: in the developing world, WHO estimates that some 1.5 million children die each year because they are not adequately breastfed. These facts are not in dispute."

Although Nestlé does dispute the facts. See our briefing on Nestlé for the current situation, with images, links and references. The boycott will continue until Nestlé accepts and complies with Baby Milk Action's four-point plan for saving infant lives and ultimately ending the boycott.

Nestlé is singled out for boycott action as monitoring shows it to be responsible for more violations of the requirements than any other company. The boycott helps to stop some of the specific cases of malpractice we expose and has forced some changes in policy (see some examples here). But Nestlé continues systematic violations in those countries which have not yet brought in independently monitored and enforced legislation implementing the marketing requirements, which is another part of our strategy for protecting infant health and mothers' rights.

Register with Baby Milk Action to receive email alerts.

Evidence of Nestlé malpractice

If you doubt that Nestlé is doing anything wrong, see the monitoring evidence in our Campaign for Ethical Marketing section.

Reports from Save the Children (February 2013) and UNICEF Lao (released April 2013) also highlight violations by companies, with Nestlé being prominently criticised.

We have responded to some of the misinformation given out by Nestlé Public Relations Machine in the report Nestlé's Creative Storytelling Initiative - click here.

Also see the Your Questions Answered section on our archive site.

Supporting the boycott

You can register your support for the boycott via our contact page.

You can encourage organisations to endorse the Nestlé boycott. See our sample resolution.

You can find a list of Nestlé's principal products in the UK by clicking here.

It is important to tell Nestlé you are supporting the boycott - even if only for Nestlé-Free Week. You can call Nestlé's customer care line (click here to find out what happens when you do) or send an email via the Nestlé website or through the post. Click here for a suggested letter.

Materials for promoting the boycott

You can download the posters from our archive site to promote the boycott in your locality.

If you would like to hold a meeting, why not order one of the films in our on-line Virtual Shop?

You will also find great merchandise, including our reusable shopping bags (left).

Very useful items for your campaigning are the product list cards, giving Nestlé's principal brands.

You could ask people to send letters to Nestlé as part of our Campaign for Ethical Marketing.

You can collect petition signatures and return these to Baby Milk Action so we can deliver them ot Nestlé - click here for a petition sheet.

If you would like to give a talk yourself you might like to download a powerpoint presentation and a short presentation to adapt for your own use (the text has been checked to be legally accurate - please take care if adding information of your own).

If you like role playing, you could try doing something like the Nestlé challenge stunt Baby Milk Action did at Nestlé (UK) HQ in May. Click here for details.

Keep us informed of your activities. It can help to generate international media coverage.

Website images

If you have a website, why not place this banner advertisement there?

For the image to automatically update on your site, don't copy it, but link to it using :

http://www.babymilkaction.org/flash/nestlefreebanner.gif

For simplicity, you can copy the code below into the html source code of your web page or add it to your blog when in 'edit html' mode. With a myspace blog, you can add the code directly. With some blogs, you will have to add the link as a separate line. Simply add the URL:

http://info.babymilkaction.org/nestlefree

Alternatively use the following image to link to this page.The image address is:

http://www.babymilkaction.org/flash/nestlefreezone.gif

If you use a service such as blogger, you can go to the 'settings' control panel and add an html page element. Cut and paste the text below into the field for the html and the image will appear with a link to this page! Click here for an example.

Alternatively use the following image to link to this page.The image address is:

http://www.babymilkaction.org/flash/nestflown.gif

If you use a service such as blogger, you can go to the 'settings' control panel and add an html page element. Cut and paste the text below into the field for the html and the image will appear with a link to this page!

If you use Twitter, you can make your avatar Nestlé-Free by adding a Twibbon (Tweet Ribbon)

http://twibbon.com/join/Nestle-Free-Week

Nestlé, Good Grief! widget

The moving image and Nestlé, Good Grief! jingle given above is available for people to add to their websites and blogs. It will play automatically when the page loads, so it is recommended for a specific page explaining about the boycott or why you support it. Clicking on the image once it has loaded gives several options for what to do next. Use the code below to add it to your site. The widget will evolve over time to include new features and different jingles.

Include our newsfeeds on your website or blog

You can add a widget like this - follow the instructions.

Get this widget!

Send an email to spread the word - see our Email Nestlé campaign

To tell people about the boycott by email, you could cut and paste the following text and adapt it to send to your friends, family and colleagues.

For further information on what has been achieved since the first boycott was launched 30 years ago, and why the boycott was relaunched and continues today, click here.

Contact us

If you have suggestions or designs you would like us to add to this page, please email mikebrady<AT>babymilkaction.org

If you would like leaflets and petition sheets in quantity, contact us.

The boycott is just one part of Baby Milk Action's strategy to hold the baby food industry to account. Find out more by reading our year report. You can help this work further by becoming a member of Baby Milk Action. If you are outside the UK, contact our partners in the International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN).