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Please contact Target Corporation to request that they pull the infant clothing promoting formula and bottles as the path to
success.
You can contact Target Corporation by doing the following:
Go to the Target web site feedback form
Step 1 - Enter your contact information.
Step 2 - Choose "Advertised Merchandise" in the drop-down box for the subject of your email.
Step 3 - Copy and Paste this letter or one you find more suitable
Step 4 - or call the Guest Relations line: 1-800-440-0680. (It may take a few tries to explain your concern to the operator.)
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Target Corporation
1000 Nicollet Mall
Minneapolis MN, 55403
Gregg Steinhafel, President, Target Stores,
Gina Sprenger, Senior Vice President Merchandising, and
Laysha Ward, Vice President Community Relations,
Your corporation has been marketing and selling infant rompers from Circo that have a picture of a bottle and say, "Formula 4 Success." I feel it is unethical and
irresponsible for Target to promote this misinformation. Such promotion undermines a mother's own desire to do what is normal: breastfeed.
I can understand how the buyers of your products may not know the truth about consequences of feeding infants from bottles (formula is especially risky). Even
doctors are not educated about the risks of formula, or the logistics of breastfeeding http://www.kellymom.com/newman/14more_more_bf_myths.html
Please train your buyers in the ethics of marketing formula to mothers. The World Health Organization (WHO) Code for Marketing of Breast Milk
Substitutes prohibits any type of advertising, promotion, or imagery that idealizes bottle feeding or any breastfeeding substitutes. I encourage you to look at the science and ethics behind the WHO Code http://www.ibfan.org/english/resource/who/fullcode.html.
There are real risks for the mother and baby of formula feeding. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services lists some http://www.4woman.gov/breastfeeding/index.cfm?page=519 as does ProMoM.org http://www.promom.org/101
The following are *not* valid excuses for promoting formula and bottles as the "Formula 4 Success": "There are women who medically cannot breastfeed" or "Some women
choose not to breastfeed." Those statements are true. But, the clothing and the ads promoting formula and bottle feeding as the path to success should still be pulled.
Would "Some parents are not able to physically install car seats" or "Some parents choose to not tighten seat belts straps in car seats" be good excuses for Target promoting and advertising an infant romper depicting a mother with her baby in the front seat of a car with no seat belts as "Riding on the Road to Success"?
Please email me with your timeline to pull the Circo clothing and the ad depicting the "Formula 4 Success" romper.
Sincerely,
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