Anyone seen the MN microsite?

[hunkermunker]

here

I've a couple of comments about it - especially the bf section (surprise, surprise!).

And the weaning section.

Oh I agree aitch. Mumsnet is a brand, and in the last year has gained so much publicity in it's own right that to bow down to sponsorship twaddle is damaging, IMVHO.

blimey my PC is slow

yes it's because it's in Talk, and because whilst it's advice, it's company sponsored advice under the guise of a normal Talk thread

posts/threads that blatantly (or subtly) advertise services under the guise of advice/opinion are removed. I don't see why this should be exempt TBH

Yes we are going to continue with this because we have entered into some sort of contract I imagine - unless the advertiser wishes to pull it that is, which they might I guess because clearly it's not going down well - we'll ask them. Have just checked - it's scheduled to run until the end of the year I'm afraid.

Absolutely Mrs(Mr?) JC.

But the thread - will it get pulled? Because it is breaching MN rules on advertising - it should be in classifieds.

I can see why Avent wanted to advertise in this way on here, but I think they misjudged the audience.

It's got a whiff of Milupa-gate all over it - and the £130 kit "for breastfeeding" makes me want to do very, very violent things indeed.

Well we have a ban on formula milk advertising for the reason that it's misleading - ie the government bans formula milk ads and so they came up with follow on milk - but we don't have a ban on Avent, and tbh I don't see why we should. There's nothing intrinsically wrong as we see it with a) bottles or b) breast pumps or c) sterilisers.

I guess some people think there's something dodgy about Avent giving breastfeeding advice because they make bottles - but many breastfeeders use Avent expressing machines, bottles and sterilisers (I know I did) so I'm not sure that holds. In fact, and I don't know, but I suspect that's why Avent wanted to do this - to show that they are as much about breastfeeding as bottlefeeding (but that's by the by).

Some folk are saying that they don't want any expert advice on MN, but we have had plenty of experts on that have been popular/useful - Tanya Byron for example.

Having said all that I do see your point about the use of the talk boards for thinly-veiled advertorials, and I promise we'll have a think about it and maybe look at changing our guidelines on ads in view of your objections.

Thanks for your input!

I don't have a problem with breast pumps. I used one myself for six months apiece with both boys.

I don't mind expert advice on live chat threads.

I do mind this - the interactive nature of it is offensive, imo. Setting up a thread to ask questions of somebody who can only give their opinion of Avent products - that's bias.

And since some of the advice she's given on the microsite directly opposes what's been said on here in the past (I'm thinking of the "no need to sterilise" thread), I can only imagine she'd not be allowed to say "yep, fine not to sterilise" because Avent make sterilisers. So that makes me wonder about the bias of her other advice.

And I know it doesn't cost £130 to breastfeed - and I agree with Aitch, that's a cynical product, that bundle.

To clarify, I don't think there's anything intrinsically wrong with sterilisers either.

O

M

G

only just seen this. am cross.

but we LOVE tanya byron, she's someone that we know through her work, she's not a corporate mouthpiece. the live chats are completely different, it's nothing like the same thing.

the issue, as you have gathered, is the way that this is being presented as something that it isn't. there wouldn't have been any sort of outcry if it had been a normal banner ad, you're absolutely right in that regard.

but perhaps some of us do over-identify with MN, to the degree that it runs counter to your business plan? i suppose you'll just have to attach a monetary value to that sort of strength of emotion... it might be worth attracting more MNers who use it less frequently (compulsively, even ) and let us old-timers drift off to rant elsewhere. i'm not sure how all that ad stuff works, it's not something i know about. if more is always better then i guess it's inevitable that MN will go the way of all parenting sites...

Justine - like you I successfully bf my boys - complemented by expressed milk and later on topped up with formula. I think you'll struggle to get a balanced argument on this thread - the 'Mrs Angrys' will dominate. I don't have a problem with it at all - anyone with half a brain will know that the advice is bound to recommend Avent products. I think some of the posts on here are patronising in the extreme.

If only we had a business plan .

but what is the point of her, forty, if all she's doing is recommending avent products? she's just an ad. why bill her as MN's new wellbeing consultant? (i know it says 'promotion' at the top, but it's still hugely sus imo.)

LOL, Justine. you should get one, i saw it on Dragon's Den.

She shouldn't be billed as that Aitch - that is definitely bolleaux - we'll change that.

Incidentally, do you think we could get by on Dragons' Den if we said we had a lot of funny women and a bat?

Just checked - she's not billed as MN's wellbeing advisor is she - just Avent's?

Aitch - I take your point, but it's a bit like the person who asked the other day why it was that years ago babies didn't die because mums 'couldn't' breastfeed. To which the answer is, of course, that someone else would wetnurse it. Today we are fortunate to have lots of choices - including using expensive plastic gadgets if we want to. If McClaren ran a 'baby transport' help forum, no one would bat an eyelid at them recommending their pushchairs. It's because bf is such an emotive subject. I think some of the pro-bf lobby (excuse the expression) get a bit blinkered, that's all.

no, you're right, it's just Avent's. and yet the impression i was left with was that because she had her own official MN microsite, she was something to do with MN.

the MN newsletter i got tonight said this:
'Philips AVENT - All of your baby care questions answered, thanks to Vicki Scott, the first baby feeding and wellbeing advisor to Philips AVENT. Visit Vicki's new page here for expert advice, answers and tips to make your life just that little bit easier. You can also ask Vicki a question and post your top tips for returning to work.'

i dunno... 'vicki's new page'? that made me think that she was an MN creature. if she wasn't, we'd be visiting her page on the Avent site, surely? i don't know, i'm not understanding this tbh. it's basically product placement, it's iffy imo.

I see MN as somewhere women (and men) can chat, exchange ideas, support each other, banter and form friendships (and post pictures of bats).

Yes, it's also a business and I appreciate and respect that.

But this promotion belittles and cheapens the support and advice that's already given freely and in spades by all sorts of people in all sorts of topics, imo.

I don't have a problem with Avent advertising on here at all. I haven't said anything about the Annabel Karmel banner ad

But I DO have a problem with Avent trying their "relationship-building marketing" strategy out on MNers.

Yes well I agree it's all bit cheesy but I do think it's pretty clear it's advertising and not a MN expert - the page is headed Phillips Avent promotion and the ad in the newsletter is boxed out of the editorial and Titled phillips avent. Still as said we take your point in general about the mixing of ads and content - and we promise to give it some thought and to generally pull our socks up.

Sweet dreams all.

no no no, that's completely not it, forty. if Avent ran Vicki's page then we'd expect her to recommend Avent, of course.
If MN run her page i'd expect her to defer to Tiktok until such times as she earns the respect of the women on here. but because she's a corporate mouthpiece she's here to stay with pieces in the newsletter and banner ads across the top and her own microsite until the end of the year.
and i didn't say it on the other thread... but a lot of babies died in the past. they didn't wetnurse or have their own cow in a paddock, they just died. we are lucky now, but things have moved to a degree where someone with fragile bfing (Me) can lose it altogether because medics etc have lost touch with how bfing actually works.

Fortyplus, if not thinking baby perambulation is on a par with their sole source of nutrition for the first good few months makes me blinkered, so be it.