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Born to Breastfeed
An Advertising Campaign Worth Watching
By Kelly Burgess
Chances are, if you're pregnant now or ever were, you walked away from your first prenatal visit with a little bag, emblazoned with the logo of a big formula company – but it's more than a bag filled with free gifts and coupons. You see, formula companies pay millions of dollars each year to promote formula feeding through commercial advertising. The expectant or new mother is their target, and the sooner they get their name and product into her hands, the better. Breastfeeding, which makes money for no one, can't begin to compete.
"It's gotten to the point where people don't even think of breastfeeding because it's never even presented as an option," says Dr. Jack Newman, an international expert on breastfeeding issues. "It's like they forget the breast has that purpose. A lot of this is because formula companies spend millions and millions of dollars to promote formula and to buy physicians and hospitals. If you have a baby you'll get a gift pack of formula whether you're breastfeeding or not."
The United States has one of the lowest breastfeeding rates in the entire world. Many experts and organizations attribute this to the fact that breastfeeding isn't promoted at the same level as formula feeding in this country. A new national ad campaign put out by the Office of Women's Health, a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), hopes to change that.
This $40 million National Breastfeeding Awareness Campaign hopes to bring home the message that "Babies were born to be breastfed."
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