Bottles, not breasts, spark British ad battle

Having spent my entire life without breasts — no man boobs, even — I’ve never bothered to nurse an opinion on breastfeeding. Now that my close friends are breeding, I’ve only recently learned about the social pressures weighing on both breast and bottle. But America obviously doesn’t hold a candle to Britain, where a picture of a celebrity’s bottle-feeding baby has sparked an uproar. Child-advocacy groups say it’s a violation of the country’s ban on advertising of infant formula. Wait a second, there’s a ban on infant-formula ads? Yes, and a ban on all formula advertising is being sought by Unicef and other groups. But here's the real kicker: This photo’s not even an ad. It’s part of an OK! magazine interview with model Katie Price, aka Jordan. The photo happens to show the name of the formula company, and it ran alongside a “legal” ad for the company’s older-baby formula. Wow. Can’t we find a happy medium between British bottle-burning and American boob fear?

—Posted by David Griner

August 8, 2007 in Griner | Permalink