Archive site - new site at www.babymilkaction.org

Latest trends: baby clubs, social media and health workers

Baby Milk Action’s Look What They’re Doing 2013 monitoring report exposes latest strategies for targeting mothers in the UK. Danone’s Facebook strategy to promote its Cow & Gate brand of formula, for example, invites mothers to "Ask, chat, share & laugh!"

It has content-specific advertising placed on sites and websearches relating to infant formula and childcare and attempts to supplant health workers and mother support groups as the source of information on childcare by offering "expert advice and support".

Leaflets on pregnancy are placed in health facilities and displayed alongside NHS leaflets on diabetes and giving up smoking. Outside there is the subtle Cow & Gate heart logo. Inside, pregnant women are encouraged to contact Danone’s Cow & Gate-branded "Careline", visit its websites and sign up for information - including on formula. 

In May 2012, following a Baby Milk Action campaign, Danone promised to stop distributing materials intended to reach the public through health care facilities, not just in the UK, but around the world. This is an important victory, but perhaps shows how the other strategies are taking over. Danone’s main aim is to get mothers to use its own website, offering information, film clips, advice, free gifts and more. It claims 3,000 mothers are signing up every week. Mother support groups have to compete if they want to reach mothers with unbiased information.

Once on the list, the emails come. One for pregnant women nearing their delivery dates promotes the Cow & Gate starter kit: "Compete peace of mind for the first 48 hours". Mothers who opt out of receiving information on milks are sent a weaning mailing when their children are 3 months old, encouraging spoonfeeding pureés - undermining the recommendation to begin complementary foods at about 6 months.

Perhaps most worrying of all, health workers are actively working with Danone. For example, Community Practitioner magazine distributes the Cow & Gate-branded Feeding for Life supplement, which promotes a website linking to information on formulas. The Infant and Toddler forum for health workers and parents is a partner in the government’s Public Health Responsibility Deal - the website is owned by Danone, which sponsors events. Of course, all of this is paid for by premiums on the formula price. (See No promotion - Cheaper formula campaign page 18).

Danone free booklet undermines home-grown organic foods

This booklet boasts about Cow&Gate’s quality assurance. Someone asks if it is safe for children to eat home-grown organic vegetables. Stephan (from Cow&Gate) answers:

"Do you know if the soil on your vegetable patch contains heavy metals, or what pesticides may have been used in the past?

"No I don’t....there’s a thought...."

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