Monday, July 09, 2007

Nestlé-Free Zones continue

International Nestlé-Free Week may have come to an end on Sunday, but the boycott continues until Nestlé accepts and abides by the four-point plan put to it by boycott coorindators. Thanks to your efforts in promoting the boycott to new people during Nestlé-Free Week many more people will have become aware of it and some of those will continue to put pressure on Nestlé. For those that can only be persuaded to give up Nestlé products for one week a year, plans are already being discussed for next time!

The Nestlé-Free Zone banner advertisement has now been updated. If put this on your site or blog using the code we provided it will automatically have updated. If not, you will still be proclaiming it is Nestlé-Free Wee from 2-8 July, so best to add the code now, which you will find at:
http://www.babymilkaction.org/resources/boycott/nestlefree.html

This is what the banner looks like today (this one is frozen in time for historical reasons).

It flags up that Nestlé's Public Affairs Manager has acknowledeged in a letter that Nestlé is 'widely boycotted'. This was the finding of an independent poll conducted by GMIPoll that found Nestlé was one of the four most boycotted companies on the planet. The banners link to the Nestlé-Free Zone, which links to the press release about this. Here is the direct link to the press release:
http://www.babymilkaction.org/press/press6july07.html

In the Philippines, they publicised the week with a photograph of a mother which had been displayed in a shop. She is appears holding a sign saying she is a shop lifter and the tin of NIDO whole milk she had tried to steal. As the UNICEF Philippines film shows, mothers are misled into believing their children will be more intelligent if fed with formula and processed milks. Those that give up breastfeeding may overdilute formula to make it last longer or use unsuitable milks such as NIDO (which Nestlé promotes alongside the infant formula in the infant feeding sections of pharmacies and supermarkets in many countries - a practice is has refused to stop). Those that cannot afford NIDO may be driven to steal.

The impact of Nestlé-Free Week continues. Today we were visited by a news crew from a national television channel, preparing a piece to go out in Asia. Hopefully I'll be able to link to that on the internet once it goes out next week.

We went out and did some leafleting to film. If any of you have tried this, you will know how motivating it can be. Sure, some people blank you and don't want to take a leaflet, but many do with lots of those making a point of saying they support the campaign.

Remember you can download leaflets and posters from our website and order other materials from our on-line Virtual Shop.

Let's spread those Nestlé-Free Zones far and wide and keep on encouraging people to sign our boycott petition and tell Nestlé they boycott.

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