A formula company "kindly" asked us to remove this post.
We did not and we will not. ☺️
This afternoon is the first of two presentations we’re making about doulas—who are being used a corporate marketing tools! Come join us.
Ok! On to the blog.
Nothing—and I mean nothing—puts a spring in my step like getting an email from the head of Bobbie’s marketing department pleading with us to take down a post that embarrasses and exposes them. If you have the opportunity to make a corporation beg, I highly recommend it.
Ok so, the post in question is a reel of *me* pointing out the (really weird) lies in a influencer’s post where she is schilling her Bobbie affiliate link. The now deleted reel features her discussing:
*getting a humpback from breastfeeding (!?!?!)
*comparing Bobbie’s formula to other formulas that contain .. cheese, vinegar, coco powder (??!!)
* talking about how “disgusting” seed oils are (even though Bobbie’s formula uses seed oils)
*how much she hated breastfeeding and how it alienated her from her baby. OF COURSE, women are allowed to feel anyway they want about breastfeeding but lets be clear: when formula companies elevate the stories of women who disparage breastfeeding its so they can turn a buck.
IT IS WILD. Check it out here:
Shortly after our reel started making the rounds, Kim Chapell, Bobbie’s top marketing executive sent me an email saying the influencer took down her post because she posted it “prematurely” and now that it was down, could we also take ours down.
The fundamental problem with influencers doing formula ads is that the end user is not a mom scrolling on instagram but a vulnerable infant. Formula is not a “food” it is a breastmilk substitute.
Influencer formula marketing is wildly unregulated and rife with misinformation and outright bullshit— and the excesses of this type of marketing can most negatively impact a baby. It is an economy that relies on the destruction of breastmilk, the sole substance babies evolved to consume. We are living through the greatest disruption of infant feeding in the history of our species and a bunch of dudes in fleece vests are getting rich off of it.
My favorite thing about her account-which I’d never heard of prior to your post-is that she attributes that neck hump to any and everything she’s marketing a solution for. One post it’s tech neck (she’s got a course if exercises for you to buy to combat it), one is it’s your pillow (affiliate link provided), one it’s breastfeeding (another affiliate link).
The unmitigated gall. I want to light things on fire.