Breastfeeding Ads and Commercials from the National Breastfeeding Campaign
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Friday, June 16, 2006
Almost anyone that's watched any news in the past week or so has seen the stories that talk about the end of a two-year national breastfeeding campaign aimed at educating moms about the benefits of breast milk and the potential risks of formula. The breastfeeding campaign included a combination of print ads, tv commercials and billboards designed to help encourage moms to breastfeed.The thing is...with the exception of the billboards, most moms that I've spoken to have NEVER seen the breastfeeding commercials or the breastfeeding print ads. (Unless they catch a glimpse of them during a news story.) That's because the TV ads created a TON of controversy in the early days of the campaign and that, combined with pressure from the formula industry pretty much managed to curtail their runs. The print ads...well...I have no idea where they ran.
The billboard ads were simply white text on a black backround that said "babies were born to be breastfed."
So...here they are!
TV Commercials (I can totally see how these offended people...)
"Ladies' Night" (also knows as "pregnant woman riding a bull"
"Log Rolling (also known as pregnant women running on logs)
Print Ads (Personally, I think these are brilliant!)
"Dandelions"
"Ice Cream"
"Otoscopes"
Radio Ads (umm...can we say HOKEY?)
"Soul"
"Country"
Labels: In the News, Lactivism
The Ice Cream one is my favorite. Love it.
I understand why some folks get ruffled over the tone taken in a portion of this campaign. But then I think about the following two groups: women who still believe that formula is "just as good" or GASP "better" than breast milk; and narrowminded folks who think breastfeeding is "gross" and make life difficult for nursing moms. These two groups need something that gets up into their grill, KWIM?
And as for those of us who feel grief and guilt over not being able to breastfeed, when we really REALLY wanted to -- well perhaps increased awareness of the importance of breastfeeding will lead to increased support and better educated healthcare professionals. Rising tides and all.
Simply awesome stuff. Time to print out a few hundred of each and put them up everywhere.
I've never seen any of these ads or heard the radio spots. In fact, I stopped listening to the radio spots shortly after playing them they were so horrible.
While I believe it is incredibly important to increase awareness of breastfeeding and while many people remain "in the dark" about benefits and the natural occurance of things (hello, we lactate for a reason!) these ads wouldn't have worked properly even if they were rightly distributed.
The National Breastfeeding Campaign should have spent more time working with an advertiser to create a better message. With the exception of the print ads the campaign was a bust. Don't distract people from a message when the message is the whole point.
Maybe next time they run a campaign they'll do some market research first. Be shocking, just don't be so distracting you damage your own goal.
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