Breastfeeding in public - changing cultures

Yesterday I wrote about a UK government consultation on equality legislation which may protect a mother's right to breastfeed in public. See:
http://boycottnestle.blogspot.com/2007/06/right-to-feed-infant-in-public-in-uk.html

Legislation sends an important message, but there is more to changing cultures. Consider the situation in Herkimer County in New York State. Figures in a survey found that 54% of men and 35% of women were comfortable with having their child breastfed in public. The Healthy Start partnership for the Country launched an advertising campaign with billboards and films. The campaign worked. Three months later the numbers were up to almost 69% of men and 46% of women saying they would be comfortable with having their child breastfed in public after the campaign.

You can find out more Cornell University Chronicle Online website at:
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/June07/breastfeeding.sl.html

This includes the posters and television and radio advertisements.

The Chronicle reports Christine Olson, Cornell professor of nutritional sciences, saying: "I was amazed by the findings. The evaluation shows that this kind of community intervention can create a social environment that is more supportive for breastfeeding."

Imagine that. Advertising influences people.

With that in mind we have posted some Nestlé boycott images on our website for people to use to promote the campaign. We can describe these as retro as they were donated to the campaign many years ago. It seems appropriate to bring them out again as we approach the 30th anniversary of the first Nestlé boycott. That led to the marketing code for baby foods and a promise by Nestlé to abide by it. Nestlé broke its promises so the boycott was re-launched. Nestlé is the target of the boycott because monitoring around the world shows it to be responsible for more violations of the World Health Assembly marketing requirements than any other company. For my past blog on the 30th anniversary see:
http://boycottnestle.blogspot.com/2007/01/30th-anniversary-year.html

Here are some of the images:


You can access these through our on-line Virtual Shop in the Do-it-Yourself section.