Predatory practices exposed as WHO & UNICEF call out misleading baby milk ads

SOUTH AFRICA – The World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) launched a “Babies before Bottom Lines” manifesto to warn parents in South Africa against false and unethical baby milk advertising.

WHO and UNICEF are specifically calling on local regulators to update regulations relating to foodstuffs for infants and young children to include other advertising techniques and digital marketing practices that have become prevalent in the past few years.

These updates are necessary because the original International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes of 1981 and local Regulation R991 of 2012 were drafted before these newer marketing strategies emerged.

Some popular social media platforms, whose algorithms can target specific consumers with specific messages at specific times, were still in their infancy or did not yet exist in 2012.

Of particular concern is that parents are often targeted with information that blurs the lines between nutritional facts and promotional pseudo-science and emotional manipulation when they are at their most vulnerable.   

The pseudo-scientific health claims made by formula companies discourage mothers from breastfeeding, which should always be a first choice, as breastmilk is the most complete and healthiest milk for babies.

WHO’s Country Representative in South Africa, Shenaaz El-Halabi, said, “False, incomplete, misleading health and nutrition claims by formula companies should stop now. The WHO calls on formula milk companies to stop presenting incomplete scientific evidence and inferring unsupported health outcomes.”

Widespread evidence exists that women have internalised doubts about the quality and quantity of their breastmilk, mirroring the themes and messaging of formula milk marketing campaigns.

WHO and UNICEF have uncovered systematic and unethical marketing strategies by the US$55 billion infant formula industry, finding it uses pervasive, personalised, and powerful methods to target parents when they are at their most vulnerable in the early days of their new baby’s life.

Dr Laurence Grummer-Strawn, who leads WHO‘s work on and young child feeding, said, “Companies use digital marketing algorithms that exploit parents when they are most vulnerable.

“They capitalise on parents’ doubts and questions. For instance, we see advertisers directing fake science at caregivers in the middle of the night, when they or their babies are struggling, to falsely convince them that bottle-fed babies sleep better than breastfed babies. This is wrong and needs to stop.”

The industry also manipulates scientific claims to promote their products whilst undermining parents’ confidence.

Concurrently, both bodies are jointly calling the attention of parents and caregivers to the WHO International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes and its related information sources.

The code provides guidelines on stricter regulation of the marketing of breastmilk substitutes, to curb harmful effects on babies’ short- and long-term health.

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