Fuck off Aptamil...

[MsFox]

...with you Facebook targeted adverts.

Since announcing my pregnancy on Facebook, I have been targeted by so many formula companies advertising 'baby clubs'. Aptamil are offering a free polar bear, and '1 to 1 advice'.... I wonder if this advice includes breastfeeding advice? No? Oh... no money in breastfeeding I suppose...

Yes, it's illegal, as they are not allowed to target women directly. But no one will prosecute so they continue.

The formula helplines do offer advice on breastfeeding. This is part of the marketing thing - it is very important to reach women who are breastfeeding as the vast majority of them stop before their babies use ordinary cows milk. Women who use formula after starting to breastfeed have a strong tendency to stay using formula for longer than women who start off formula feeding (I have no proof of this - it was something a marketeer in the field told me).

I am sure ads like this don't work well on an individual level and definitely not with every individual - very few people will see one ad and decide not to bf. However they may well join the baby club for the freebies and this will work in a subtler way. Freebies and ads and clubs and so on work on the culture, changing outlooks and promoting familiarity with a brand name.

In my doctor's surgery last week I picked up a leaflet on pregnancy, from Cow&Gate. Cow&Gate sell nothing and produce nothing related to pregnancy. The leaflet did not even mention the range of milks. But it did present Cow&Gate as the experts, which again is part of a wider marketing strategy.

Cow and Gate never sent me my cuddly cow . 3 and a half years I've been waiting for it! I joined every baby club going though, I like money off vouchers and freebies .

I am seriously not bothered if formula is advertised. If you don't want to FF then surely an advert isn't going to change your mind? It's not like they can say 'this formula is better than breast milk' is it? Because we all know that that's not true. I do understand that these adverts can prey on the mind of new mums in particular though- nearly fell into the 'toddler milk' crap trap myself.

Personally I'd like to see more characters on TV/in films promoting BFing. In the soaps for example, nearly all babies are bottle fed which promotes FFing as the norm.

You can close down ads on fb with the little cross on the top right, when you do it asks you why. So you can tell them it offends you.

I put my cow and gate cow in my cleavage when feeding to distract him from fiddling and pinching, this amuses me.

I do get annoyed by the patronising tone of aptimil mail shots: "bf is best for your baby, but why not take a look at our product". I stopped opening it. I have my bear (2 actually, they messed up) so I'm done with them now. If we did have to ff, I would go for a brand that isn't going to spend my money on ads that get on my tits.(bad pun intended)

i got a cuddly cow from cow & gate, polar bear from aptamil, embroiderd muslin square from sma, sachets and money off coupons from Hipp.... and i BF my boy! ha haha ha!

1 - 0 to me formula companies!! your bribes do not work with me! lol!

I fucking hate formula adverts

insulting, insiduous crap

"we all know that breastfeeding is best for your baby, yadda yadda, but meanwhile back in the REAL world, we've invented this magic elixir that will fortify your baby with more iron than the Titanic and ensure that no fucker dares to snatch shovels off him in the sandpit"

wankers

celebmum - you think you have won? Sorry :(

'Free gifts' don't have to persuade the bf muslin square owner to formula feed - that would be an amazing result.

They just have to send her the freebie and hope she uses it where other people can see it.

The mother then becomes a very cheap walking advert - much cheaper than paying someone to walk around with a placard and far more effective.

The gifts are not free, of course. One of the reasons the cost of formula is so high is that this marketing has to be paid for. So formula feeding mothers and babies pay for them, in the end.

tiktok

Now I feel really guilty about our polar bears...

Well, maybe I needn't feel guilty about our Cow & Gate cows, because we have used C & G stuff.

indeed, i saw those ads, and thought they were an insidious way of getting round the advertising ban on 0-6 frmulas, and get people to accept the 'xpert' advice on thir site.

Mark Zuckerberg is worth about £6bn. Facebook doesn't exist as a benevolent service.

FB sells very very very targeted advertising - and users helpfully tell the media buyers everything your interested in, where you are, what you like and what you want. Same with Google and Google searches and all of your internet activity. It's fantastic marketing information and it's all for free. They used to have to pay millions for this info.

The Data Protection Act is very behind with digital marketing, privacy and communications and developments happen daily. Advertising laws are also very fuzzy. Do restrictions on formula promotion exclude branded promotions, contextual advertising etc etc? I don't know.

There are things you can do. You can write to your ISP provider and instruct them that they must keep your IP address private and not sell it to third parties (obviously if you break any laws e.g. illegal downloading they can circumvent this). You should delete your search history and all cookies every time you log off. You could make sure all your social networking privacy settings are at the highest and can also apply ad blockers.

Sorry for the lecture - hope it wasn't too patronising.

I'm confused

I've had loads of bumpf from aptimal (yay polar bear!!), cow and gate (yay cow!!) and SMA (boo, no toys!), and the bumpf is split 50/50 between FF and encouraging BF??? I think they're doing rather well actually, considering they're out for a profit at the end of the day.

I exclusively breast feed, and plan to do so for quite some time.

Phishfood - Mollie in corrie was BF though we only ever saw bottles (?)
Stacey Slater chose not to cause of her meds

:)

Stacey slater never seemed into the idea - naughty girl

YABU to waste any time of your life reading adverts. Seriously, GAFG.

Thank you tiktok for bringing your wisdom to this thread...you've said exactly what I was thinking but you are much more eloquent than me! I only managed a 'fuck off apitamil'

This is why I don't go on Facebook .

I was approached by a woman in a shopping centre who said DD (about 4 months) was beautiful and what milk did I use, because she was looking for mums to complete a short survey and get given £10. I replied that I bf, and she said 'oh, well what milk are you planning to use if you stop when she is older, as you can still complete the survey and get the £10!'

I was a bit gobsmacked, said 'no plans, sorry' and walked off, but she was clearly doing market research for a specific formula company and just as clearly it was going to be biased as hell. I wish I had gone along with it just to find out which company it was so I could complain!

I don't need formula, I have a giant sippy cup that I give my children milk in, tis the only way they can get enough iron y'know

Aptamil have saved my life and my sanity. I have PND brought on by the loss of my independence following the birth of DS. My mum suggested I stop BFing and got out there again. The final straw was when I went to the doctor to get ADs and came home to a screaming baby who couldn't be left with his dad for more then one hour. I felt like walking back out into the snow and drifting away.

I now have a beautiful, thriving bottle fed baby, and the world is opening up to me again. I have met with a PND specialist who agrees with me that the pressure to BF can add to PND for some women.

Breast is of course best for baby, nobody could dispute that. But life isn't that simple for us all, as I have learned to my bitter cost. Who gives a stuff if a company gives away free polar bears, I certainly don't.

Btw I should hasten to add that my mum also believes that breast is best, she isn't one of the famous MN old ladies who hate BF. She just really loves her daughter and can't bear to see her suffering.

Are you SO vulnerable in your pregnancy that you can't cope or trust yourself around certain products!? Get a life!

I don't see people moaning "Ooh..there's alchol and shellfish everywhere I look in blody Tescos...quick! Ban it! We special people shouldn't have to LOOK!"

Bollocks!

Actually i think you will find if you read the booklets that come with aptamil stuff it DOES say breastfeeding is the best for your baby....and also talks about formila.

Yup. My big bad blue tub says 'breastmilk substitute' on it.

Too bloody right Morris, Nat and Shanahan.

OP - YANBU.

MorrisZapp - I'm sure the cultural and medical barriers to normal, happy breastfeeding that result in the majority of mothers bottle feeding, are also responsible for a lot of PND.

"if you read the booklets that come with aptamil stuff it DOES say breastfeeding is the best for your baby"

Yes - Aptamil is bloody marvellous isn't it? Such a trustworthy, altruistic company, the way they yack on about the benefits of breastfeeding (while trying to flog you a product which may well destroy your ability to do it if used daily).

Aptamil are buggers. They ride on the back of the 'Breast is Best' campaign by bigging up breastfeeding then implying that their product is the closest thing to it. They specially target breastfeeding mothers with their marketing because they know that bf mothers are more likely to use follow on milks beyond 12 months and well into toddlerhood than mothers who never breastfed in the first place.

Oh really...put your energy somewhere worthy...worry about people who have nothing to eat and stop being so insular.