Massachusetts Breastfeeding Coalition has been a leader in fighting predatory marketing that undermines breastfeeding since 2005, when the organization founded Ban the Bags, a national campaign to stop formula company marketing in maternity hospitals. In December 2005, Massachusetts became the first of many states to prohibit hospitals from distributing formula company gift bags to new parents.
Hospitals’ distribution of free products from formula companies is a gross violation of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) International Code on Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes. Multiple studies have shown that formula sales campaigns undermine mothers who choose to breastfeed, and coopt medical professionals to promote expensive brand-name formula.
Two decades after the founding of Ban the Bags, formula companies have a far greater reach via digital platforms. Massachusetts Breastfeeding Coalition is committed to building on the success of Ban the Bags by raising awareness of deceptive marketing practices that undermine breastfeeding.
Learn more about predatory marketing
Yale School of Public Health: Five Things Infant Formula Companies Don’t Want You to Know
Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine: Talking Points for Advocacy Discussions on Predatory Marketing
World Health Organization reports and resources:
How the marketing of formula milk influences our decisions on infant feeding, February 2022
Scope and impact of digital marketing strategies for promoting breastmilk substitutes, April 2022
News release: WHO reveals shocking extent of exploitative formula milk marketing, April 2022
Video recording: Marketing the US $55 billion formula milk industry, February 2022
United States Breastfeeding Committee: Unpacking Commercial Milk Formula Marketing: Communities, Contexts, and Impacts – three-part webinar, 2021
California Breastfeeding Coalition: Predatory Formula Marketing in California
Photos: Laura Garcia (top), Andrea Piacquadio (bottom)
