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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To really dislike those Bounty packs that get forced upon us, whether we want them or not?

326 replies

electra · 10/09/2008 22:13

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised since everything is a commodity today. But for some reason I find them in such poor taste. You go for a booking appointment with a midwife, so very early on in a pregnancy and it's an opportunity for you to be bombarded with advertisements for oak cots and so on...

I feel it's not entirely appropriate that healthcare providers buy into this kind of thing and endorse it and I felt the same when I was given one after dd2 was born and I barely had the energy to mumble 'I don't want one thanks'

OP posts:
juuule · 05/09/2009 14:45

I think the photo people should be stopped.
I didn't know for a long time that the photo person was associated with Bounty, though.

LovelyTinOfSpam · 05/09/2009 14:48

when i was in recently, the woman came and said "first i do your photos, then i give you your pack with the benefit forms in and i need your details" as if it was all official and that you had to have the photos to get the pack with the forms.

foxytocin · 05/09/2009 15:03

i hate Bounty. I hate promotion from cradle to grave. I hate the fact that there were Hipp and Cow&Gate promotional stuff sent along with my dd2's birth certificate - I deeply suspect the same co behind bounty was behind that one too.

feckers.

I was in HDU still shell-shocked after dd1's birth and the Bounty woman barged in all official-like and asked my name and address.

i glared at her and said, If you don't already know that then it is none of your business.

Cybertrolley · 05/09/2009 15:50

Well Busybutterfly, I will, as you suggest, just say no. Could I also ask that you and your company 'just say no' to making these horrendous plastic packs, full of shiny printed card and paper, plastic pots of cream, and more plastic wrapping that is an ecological nightmare for the planet that my unborn child will soon be sharing?

comeinnumber49yourtimeisup · 05/09/2009 16:22

"You don't get anything for nothing"

Very, very true.

Busybee, if I see you after I give birth this evening, I shall tell you to buzz off out of our very private, special time.

Outrageous behaviour.

And why fabric softener? I shall be using fabric hardener on my towels, as my mother and my mother's mother did before me.

oldraver · 05/09/2009 17:36

Well all the little boxes of washing powder came in very handy during my extended stay in hospital

onlyanauntie · 05/09/2009 17:56

Very glad I read this thread.

I am 15 weeks pregnant, first baby, and must admit, I had vaguely heard of Bounty but had no idea of who they were or what they did.

Some of the things I have read here have appalled me. The sheer act of a private company 'bribing' a public service with money so they can come as they please, and hassle women at their most vulnerable astounds me. The fact that the Child Benefit forms go in the packs blurs the line between private advertising/officialdom - I found very hard to swallow. Unbelievable, in fact.

I feel a bit more well-informed now - thanks everyone.

cocolepew · 05/09/2009 18:04

You're all very posh with your Bounty Ladies, I only got a coupon and DH had to go to Boots for my bag.

LovelyTinOfSpam · 05/09/2009 18:07

Actually it's funny they are bounty "ladies" isn;t it, very old fashioned sort of thing.

The woman who came around to flog the photos wasn't terribly ladylike with her hard sell.

LovelyTinOfSpam · 05/09/2009 18:07

Also sexist - are there any bounty men?

vinblanc · 05/09/2009 18:09

I quite liked Bounty packs. I didn't have a problem ditching things that I wasn't interested in.

foxytocin · 05/09/2009 18:10

So many posters seem to think that the Child Benefit forms only come in the Bounty pack. It doesn't. A simple phone call to HMRC, download here or do it online here

The Bounty woman left her pack anyway. Just in case, in her words. By day 5 or so when I was bored senseless in hospital by then, I had a look in. It contained 1 nappy, and maybe one or two possibly useful things. The rest of it was all ads and coupons for overpriced shite baby related stuff that if I wanted could find cheaper elsewhere.

DD2 was a home birth so not a farking Bounty woman in sight.

foxytocin · 05/09/2009 18:14

"I quite liked Bounty packs. I didn't have a problem ditching things that I wasn't interested in. "

by the time my baby is one, she will have consumed 10 times more of the world's resources than the average Sri Lankan will over his entire lifetime." Bounty feeds into that crap.

nothing personal vinblac. your comment was timely to point out that little trivia.

off my soap box.

CuilleredArgent · 05/09/2009 18:17

fabric softener perhaps so you start to associate that particular smell with your baby and continue to buy it?

photos seem pointless in digital camera age

diddl · 05/09/2009 18:19

I liked mine!
I threw away what I din´t want and used the samples and coupons.
What´s a "Bounty lady"?
My MW/HV gave me mine!

busybutterfly · 05/09/2009 19:05

Good luck for tonight, cominnumber49. If you are in my hosp tomorrow I shall smile politely and sincerely and leave you alone to enjoy your little one!! Hope all goes well xx

busybutterfly · 05/09/2009 19:07

PS and no, I don't think there are any Bounty men as some of the mums are in a state of undress and may not feel comfortable with a man.

uptomischief · 05/09/2009 19:07

Here catch.

nickytwotimes · 05/09/2009 19:11

I dislike bounty.
I hate being aggressively marketed to, particularly when in a vulnerable state.

The fab softener thing does work, btw. Nearly all my ante natal pals are still using a certain well known fabric conditioner 3 years on as they do indeed associate it with that wee one.

Re the Sudocrem - you can get a wee sample pot if you wirte them a nice wee email or letter.

AngryWasp · 05/09/2009 19:12

Busy Can I ask, - do you make a point of telling women that they don't have to give you their details and they will still give you their pack if they do?

Can I also ask if any of your pay any way reflects the number of women who do give you their details?

Many thanks in advance.

masonicpixiesreadthedailymail · 05/09/2009 19:20

you don't have to have them do you?

I did with my 1st. Then with my 2nd I didn't bother having any of it. Was more than happy to pass on a little pot of sudocrem and be free of all the crap in the post (which got on my tits 1st time - all that now yr baby is getting mobile you need active fit nappies... rubbed me up the wrong way what with my baby being disabled and all that)

Oh and talking of emma's diary, I wrote a kind of subtle piss take version which talked more of piles and things (I was genuinely pg). It was a blog on a pg obsessed website and it got taken down. Pah!

LovelyTinOfSpam · 05/09/2009 19:20

diddl the bounty ladies go around the post natal wards dishing out the bags and taking people's details for the marketing. In trusts like ours they also photograph your baby to sell you the pictures.

ROFL @ "some of the mums are in a state of undress and may not feel comfortable with a man".

Some of the mums may not feel comfortable in a state of undress in front of anyone who is not a HCP.

And some of the mums may feel uncomfortable with bedside hard sell techniques when they are feeling worn out, emotional, vulnerable and possibly drugged up to the eyeballs.

So stick that in your pipe and smoke it.

nickytwotimes · 05/09/2009 19:28

You can refuse them, but some people assume they are 'good' because they are being given access by the NHS. Not everyone has our healthy levels of scepticism.

tethersend · 05/09/2009 19:29

Why didn't I get a bounty pack???!

QueenOfFuckingEverything · 05/09/2009 19:32

So busybutterfly, you don't have any misgivings about the way Bounty make profit by breaking the International Code for Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes?