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Nestle’s Courting of Mommy Bloggers Off the Rails
The invitation was not that uncommon in these days of social media – Nestle was asking twenty of the nation’s mom and dad bloggers to learn about the brand on a trip to Cali.
A trip they’d foot the bill for at Nestle, of course, in exchange for a little bit of that mommy (and daddy) magic. Commence firestorm and mudslinging.
What started it? One word: formula.
But this wasn’t the usual “Breast is best.” “No it isn’t.” “Is so.” “Nuh uh,” argument that the mere mention of the word most often devolves into (yes, we’ve had a few of those show up right here, in fact).
As a company cashed in on the parent blogging powerhouse marketing tool with a fancy vacation, it hit a nerve with people thinking about the have nots.
A little history: on and off since 1977, there’s been a world-wide Nestle boycott among breastfeeding advocates in Australia, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Mauritius, Mexico, Norway, Philippines, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, UK and the good old US of A.
The problem stems from marketing by Nestle of its baby formula in third world countries, a move the boycott supporters say leads directly to the deaths of infants (one pamphlet distributed on behalf of the cause was oh-so-sublty titled “Nestle Kills Babies”). Nestle was brought to court in a German court in the seventies over the issue, but a TIME magazine article from the time relates a draw of sorts – the company could not be linked to any deaths, but was directed to modify its marketing campaigns. But it didn’t die then – another boycott came back in the 80s and stands strong today.
So when parents of the net said “yes, Nestle, we’re coming,” their peers didn’t take it standing up. They hovered over their keyboards tweeting and typing out blog posts.
PhD in Parenting has one of the most comprehensive attacks on the company, colored with strong language that makes clear her feelings on the formula company: “Advertising formula and providing free samples to women in developing countries could be likened to advertising free c-sections with a dirty knife and untrained medical staff.”
Other parents managed to sum it up in one hundred forty or less: “RT @Blacktating: What’s scarier than ghosts & goblins? #Nestlefamily.”
Trying to keep up, Nestle’s CEO hopped on Twitter. And bloggers headed to Cali popped up to defend themselves.
Still, five days after the party at headquarters ended (the Nestle meeting was held Sept. 30 and Oct. 1), the blogosphere and Twitterverse alike are rampant with the Nestle war.
For me, it’s done two things: opened my eyes to a boycott I’d never heard of and made me ponder the truth of the old adage “there’s no such thing as bad publicity.”
Nestle wanted the parent’s perspective. They’ve certainly gotten it. But is that a bad thing for them?
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[...] formula and breastfeeding mothers don’t. (To read more details about the controversy, click here) So in the midst of this ongoing controversy what does Nestle do? They bribe “mommy” bloggers [...]
Success vs. failure: a brief recount of two social media marketing strategies « alyssa yeo commented on Feb 17 10 at 7:55 pm[...] babble.com Nestle’s Courting of Mommy Bloggers Off the Rails [...]
Nestle Twitter Firestorm: Anthology of Activist Blogs & Twitter Names | Best for Babes commented on Apr 01 11 at 1:41 amBettina@bestforbabes.org commented on Oct 06 09 at 12:56 pmTHANK YOU Babble for reporting on this!! for anyone who wants to get up to speed on all the blogs that were posted on this subject, there is a chronological anthology available here: http://bit.ly/LAh38
Me commented on Oct 06 09 at 12:57 pmThe “activists” on twitter are not a good representation of mothers in the USA. Most mothers do not co=sleep in their martial beds. Most do not home school. Most do practice religion. Read their tittwer bios, please. These are radical mothers who do not accept that people think differently from them.
Mike Brady commented on Oct 06 09 at 12:59 pmBaby Milk Action also popped up on Twitter and offered to debate with Nestlé, but this wasn’t taken up.
I became aware of the event because of the traffic coming to Baby Milk Action sites from links posted to Twitter. For answers to some of the questions raised, see:
http://boycottnestle.blogspot.com/2009/10/twitter-answers.html
Candace commented on Oct 06 09 at 1:24 pm@Me Don’t try to make this into mommy wars. It is not. It is about the corporate practices of Nestle. Feel free to dispute the evidence or disagree about its import…but this is one conservative, Christian, military spouse (albeit a breastfeeding one) who is taking a moment while her daughter is at preschool to say she does not appreciate being dismissed as a stereotype.
Alison commented on Oct 06 09 at 2:27 pmRegardless of how you feel regarding formula, I suspect we all agree that slavery is unacceptable and that is yet another reason to boycott nestle (As well as other chocolate manufacturers).
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=12754
Nestle’s corporate practices are the issue, not the so-called radicalism of people who oppose those practices.
Annie @ PhD in Parenting commented on Oct 06 09 at 3:03 pmI’m not sure whether to take the comment from “Me” as a compliment or an insult. I co-sleep, I don’t homeschool (but think it is great for those that do) and I am an atheist. I don’t think of myself as radical, but I do think of myself as someone who cares and someone who thinks about the choices that she makes (rather than just doing what everyone else is doing. That applies to parenting practices and consumer choices. If doing a bit of researching and thinking makes me a radical, then sign me up.
Holly commented on Oct 06 09 at 3:06 pmIt’s not just about their formula marketing. Google “Nestle child slavery” or “Nestle water.”
Maria commented on Oct 06 09 at 3:11 pmThe comment from “me” makes me proud that I don’t have much in common with her. Gag me with a spoon, lady.
Me commented on Oct 06 09 at 3:27 pmMe, if radical means “willing to hold major corporations accountable for their actions and effects on this world so they don’t cause the deaths of children (and steal water from local communities in our beloved USA)” then being a “radical” is hardly a bad thing. It’s a responsible and caring thing. What is the opposite of radicalism, and is that actually something to be proud of, if this is the definition you’re using?
Anyway, most mothers (heck, even many DOCTORS) in the US also flagrantly disregard (or are just completely ignorant of) the nutritional & developmental guidelines set out by AAP, WHO & everyone else in expert-land, so really, being one of the non-radical masses is not always something to be so proud of.
This is not a theoretical argument. These are real children (of your God, presumably, why are you turning your nose up at those “non religious” who are actually loving their neighbors?) who are being starved, sickened, gunned down. Children. Dying. Children slowly starving to death because Nestle helped their mom’s milk dry up, but their parents can’t actually afford enough formula to sustain them, and/or cannot get access to water that doesn’t poison them.
Do not blow this off with generalizations and stereotypes because you refuse to admit that this has been happening, and can be stopped if people stop valuing chocolate & coffee & not siding with those “heathen radicals” more than children’s lives.
I’m not speaking for anyone but me, but no: i do not accept people who sit back and willingly pay for these atrocities to happen because they are lazy and don’t want to switch brand loyalties. If you buy from nestle, your money is going towards these things happening, and the people doing them. So I reserve the right to think just the same of those people who $upport as I do the people who make the orders or run the farms, or are in charge of the marketing in the developing world.
The comment on the twitterers lifestyles are annoying, but irrelevant. Nestle constantly being acknowledged as violators of laws and codes around the world (not by radical activists, by governments themselves), and their doing very little about it is the issue.
Ameya commented on Oct 06 09 at 3:34 pmOops, the long winded “me” was… me. not the me who has a war-bed.
Karen commented on Oct 06 09 at 3:58 pmHahahahaha… “martial bed”.
I’ve kept silent on this on Twitter, since I had not heard of the boycott before and felt it best to observe, but…
I seriously do not understand the super-pro-Nestle people, the “I heart Nestle” people. Do they think that the allegations against Nestle are lies? If so, why? If they believe the allegations are true, how can they possibly stand by the company they way they are?
SMH. It just doesn’t make sense. We all agree that serious ethical violations are a bad thing, right? … Right?
Andrea commented on Oct 06 09 at 8:02 pmNestle doesn’t just aggresively market formula in the third world, it also aggresively markets sugar-loaded cereal when baby moves on to cereals. I’m Canadian but spent much of my maternity leave in Barbados where my parents live and when I ran out of Beechnut cereal I turned to Nestle out of desperation(though I previously supported the boycott). They don’t sell the normal sugar free nestle in the Caribbean and Latin America, they sell cereal which has sugar listed as its SECOND ingredient. They also deliberately made it difficult for distributors to import the sugar free cereal. When I called the local reps to complain, I was told- the sugar is included to give the babies “much needed energy”- I kid you not. When I asked if North American kids didn’t need energy, my call mysteriously got disconnected. So as far as I’m concerned, Nestle has a lot to answer for. It deliberately targets developing countries where they can bribe officials and misinform mothers. Please don’t buy from them!!!
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