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 Cleofartra there does seem to be an assumption amongst loads of folk I know, from varied backgrounds and geographical locations that aptamil is the closest to BF. I've no idea how they've achieved this but their advertising bods have clearly done a fab job.

I was told by the MW in hospital that its no better but tastes most similar?

"put your energy somewhere worthy"

Because it really doesn't matter if the majority of babies in the UK don't get more than a few weeks of breastfeeding, and that so many women have difficult experiences of breastfeeding does it?

Formula marketing and patterns of formula use are a huge part of the picture when it comes to cultural barriers to breastfeeding in the UK. If you think breastfeeding is important for mums and babies then this IS something that's worth getting animated about. It's rooted in a lot of things that concern me and I'm sure many other people: the health and well-being of babies and new mums, and the role of big business in influencing public mores in relation to these issues.

I complained to the ASA about these ads. I agree with Tiktok, they are all part of the wider strategy to make ff seen as normal. The ASA did reply to be but said there was nothing they could do about them

"I've no idea how they've achieved this but their advertising bods have clearly done a fab job"

I suspect they do more direct marketing to health professionals than any other company.

"I was told by the MW in hospital that its no better but tastes most similar?"

Presumably based on her experience of sampling many different women's breastmilk? Or does she think that all breastmilk tastes the same?

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/breast_and_bottle_feeding/1044677-Gow-and-Gate-and-Aptimil-Advertising

It never fails to amaze me how naive people can be about how marketing/advertising works.

A few years ago I used to fill in those yougov surveys online (if you do fifty billion of them then you get £50, I did thousands and still never got close to my £50 ). I was amazed to learn that I felt warmer and fuzzier about a company just because I recognised their name and they therefore seemed more familiar. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

As someone else has mentioned: if it didn't work, why they hell would they do it?

Cleofartra I've read somewhere on MN that Aptamil tend to advertise heavily in MW periodicals.

honestly shana what a patronising and boring thing to say - of course there is a lot going on in the world but this is a place for discussions on topics that interest people - if you dont like, dont join in

freddie/splashy

They do monitor your browsing. There is a name for it (DH works in online retailing) but I can't remember what it is.

Its similar to when I was on the Office shoes website looking at a particular pair of shoes, then they appear in an advert on the side of my hotmail. ASOS and Republic also do it. Big Brother stylee.

Wanting formula to be marketed ethically, and for formula milk companies obey the law, is not the same as pressurising mothers to breastfeed.

Formula is an essential product - and some mothers (and babies) need the product because breastfeeding is not compatible with their health or their mental health.

That's a separate issue. Some people persist in conflating the two.

MorrisZapp, you needed to stop bf - and thank goodness there was a safe, easily available product.

Shame you think that this means it doesn't matter that mothers and babies are targetted with 'free' gifts.

(By the way, all breastmilk substitutes have the breastfeeding info panel on the pack. This is one law they do obey. They don't deserve praise for putting it on!)

And I repeat again - advertising and marketing doesn't have to work by 'making' someone change their mind. It's more subtle than that.

I dont understand how anyone could be talked into using formula if they had already decided to breastfeed, no matter how many adverts we see or how many emails we are sent from the companies we`ve signed up to.

Im due very soon, and Im going to be formula feeding, I knew I would formula feed as soon as I realised I was pregnant, my choice, and I wont have my mind changed, surely its the same for breast feeding mothers? You`ve made your decision, so you wont have it changed by an advert.

Ive had more people demand to know why I wont be breast feeding, and then proceed to tell me I should be, because they did for x amount of weeks/months, so I dont think ff is seen as normal.

I dont know what the fuck im trying to say, each to their own I suppose, its almost 2.30am and im waffling, and surely its Facebook thats targeting you, not Aptamil?

Hehe kelly2525 your post made me laugh. All the best with your LO!

Before I got pregnant I already decided I'd breastfeed and now DD is 3 months that's exactly what I'm doing. Can't say formula milk advertisement bothers me much. With all the gumpf you get when your pregnant I can't actually remember seeing much in the way of stuff about formula.

So I second what kelly2525 says. Maybe because my decision to BF was made long ago, I somehow subconsciously ignore the formula adverts as they don't apply to me. Not been tempted by formula milk either. Was determined to BF.

Why do they bother then kelly2525? Their advertising must cost thousands. The leaflet by Cow and Gate that TikTok mentioned - do you think they do that for love? Bollocks... Massively naive of some of you to suggest that these relentless advertising campaigns have no impact.

Facebook is free. The adverts pay for it. You don't have to use it. The service they provide is "Online social networking with adverts". If you want just "Online Social NEtworking" then you need a different service.

Oh, and thank you everyone for your advice on how to block the ads.
My annoyance is more at the fact that they are allowed to do it though, I'm not in ff/bf turmoil because of them

"I'm due very soon, and Im going to be formula feeding, I knew I would formula feed as soon as I realised I was pregnant, my choice, and I wont have my mind changed"

You want to do what's best for your baby and for you. Part of what reassures you that formula feeding is a safe and a healthy way to feed your baby is the massive amount of high-end advertising you've been exposed to over the years - before you were even pregnant. Formula advertising works subliminally to our trust in the big infant feeding brands. Hipp, Milupa Aptimil, Cow and Gate etc - all massive brand names which are permanently in the public eye.

As Tiktok pointed out:

"And I repeat again - advertising and marketing doesn't have to work by 'making' someone change their mind. It's more subtle than that."

And she's right. There's very much a belief that: 'well - they wouldn't be allowed to advertise the stuff if it wasn't completely safe and healthy for babies'. It's part of the reason why you get such a hysterical and disbelieving response if you point out that whatever Cow and Gate or Aptimil say about how they can be trusted to support parents, they've some how neglected to point out to them using their product will leave their babies with a significantly higher chance of needing medical attention and admission to hospital in the first six months of life than if they'd given him or her the product that's their main competitor: the mothers own milk.

"so I dont think ff is seen as normal".

The vast majority of babies in this country over a few weeks old are bottle fed. Over 90 % of six month old babies in the UK have had formula. You don't have to 'think' anything to see ff as the normal way to feed a baby. You simply have to be. Over the course of your life you've been exposed to vastly more babies being bottle fed than you will have been exposed to normal breastfeeding - in your day to day life and through the media. Of course that's going to make a difference to how comfortable you feel about choosing this method of feeding your baby.

A few months of unsophisticated NHS breastfeeding promotion and clumsy attempts by friends to encourage you to change your mind isn't necessarily going to affect how you feel about it.

"Formula advertising works subliminally to our trust in the big infant feeding brands"

Whoops should read: "Formula advertising works subliminally to increase our trust in the big infant feeding brands"

msfox it annoys me too. I have finally got rid of the nestle ones, but still get aptamil and cow and gate

when the ads come up there is an x in the corner. if you click on it they ask you WHY you don't want to see that ad

Listen Cleo....both mine were FF and they are great....I don't need some patronsing bollocks pushed down my throat which assumes I am under educated or ignorant or "have cultural barriers"

If you have a baby and want to breast feed...then breast feed...but DON'T force your issues and your own obsessions onto those who don't want to or cannot.

The fact that people on here are so disgusted about Formula advertising is offensive to those who choose it.

cleo can I ask you why you will not be bf? I don't mean to be rude and of course you entitled to do as you wish, but I find it difficult to understand why people would not when the long term benefits to babies (including risk of cot death reduced, risk of infections reduced as well as risk of certain childhood cancers reduced, not to mention cutting your risk of breast/ovarian cancer etc etc etc...) i don't say this as a scare tactic, but what I mean is, when you see facts like this in black and White - and the bonding aspect for baby too, does this mean something to you or not? I have really tried to word this in a way that is not rude so I do apologise if it comes across like that, but I just find it hard to understand why someone would not given how good it is for baby and how the benefits last for life.

On another note, I personally feel the easy availability of formula makes it a lot easier for women to go to formula... I think Canada has the right approach to bf

"Formula companies are NEVER going to go away"

No - absolutely right. There are vast amounts of money to be made out of women and babies and these companies will be there to make it. That's why we need legislation to stop their unethical marketing practices. They will never do these things voluntarily. Capitalism doesn't work that way. Profit will always triumph over ethics.

"put their hate in the government to demand more support networks and trained knowledgeable people that is consistently (instead of the inept one we have currently) good, I personally believe BF rates would go up two fold"

You need to do BOTH. It's not just the lack of support that impacts on breastfeeding. The widespread, casual and unthinking use of formula supplements in the first month of babies' lives damages breastfeeding. You don't need to know much about the physiology of breastfeeding to understand that. Breastfeeding rates have gone up - but so have ff rates. Massively. And they've gone up because of the concerted efforts of formula companies to keep their brand in the public eye and to increase mothers' trust in the product.

Norway used to have bf rates which were as low as ours. 98% of Norweigan women now leave hospital breastfeeding and 90% are still bf at 3 to 4 months. They achieved this not just through public health campaigns, improved maternity rights and better maternity care, but through discouraging the widespread marketing of baby milks.

"cleo can I ask you why you will not be bf? "

I did breastfeed my own babies. I was just quoting another poster and responding to a point she as making!"

By the way, I had horrendous times bf-ing in the beg with both my dc. I could have given up a lot of times but bf and the benefits to my dc. I don't say this ad a pat on the back for me as such but to show I am not just talking as someone who had it easy - after giving birth it was the Hardest thing I hav ever done!