Best for Babes

The Best for Babes Foundation is releasing a provocative new breastfeeding ad in a special Pregnancy & Wellness Report to be inserted in USA Today on June 25th in the greater metropolitan areas of Los Angeles, Chicago and New York.  The Best for Babes Foundation was established in 2007 to fight the barriers to breastfeeding, and to give breastfeeding a makeover by using mainstream marketing and branding.

According to the ad, the real miracle isn’t the bra, but mothers, and their ability to make milk for their own and others’ babies.  Best for Babes urges parents to get the right support to navigate the “Booby Traps“–the cultural and institutional barriers that keep mothers from making informed feeding decisions and carrying them out.  “Most moms want to breastfeed, and don’t realize how they are being undermined by the very institutions that should be helping them.  Whether they breastfeed for 2 weeks, 2 months, 2 years or not at all, they deserve to achieve their personal goals.   We’re clearing through the information clutter–much of it misleading–and are showing them how to succeed and who they can trust, much like a personal trainer or nutritionist would for someone who wants to get fit,” says Best for Babes Co-Founder Bettina Forbes.   

The ad, which is part of a series of arresting visuals,  is the first of its kind that aims to raise awareness of the “WHO-Code“–the World Health Organization’s International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes and direct parents to hospitals, doctors, employers and resources that are WHO-Code compliant.   “Most parents don’t know that the WHO-Code was created to protect parent’s right to make an informed feeding decision at one of the most vulnerable and precious times of their lives–the birth of a child,   explains Marsha Walker, RN, IBCLC and a leading expert on WHO-Code compliance.   “The aggressive marketing of artificial human milk substitutes has been shown to undermine breastfeeding intention and success, and parents should be careful about where they turn for breastfeeding support.” The ad also acknowledges breastfeeding industry companies such as Evenflo, Numom Nutrition, 60 Second Parent, Pumpease, My Baby Experts, Earth Mama Angel Baby, My Milkies, and Be Nice that are WHO-Code compliant and support Best for Babes’ mission to beat the “Booby Traps” and change the cultural perception of breastfeeding.

Unlike government and state breastfeeding campaigns that have come under fire for using scare tactics,  unappealing visuals, or making moms feel judged or guilty, the Best for Babes ad campaign is eye-catching, fun, and designed to cheer on, coach and celebrate moms.  “We want moms to have an awesome, empowering breastfeeding experience, ” says Best for Babes Co-Founder Danielle Rigg.  “All parents want what’s best for their babies.  They deserve support and resources, and those who can’t breastfeed deserve access to the next best substitute:  pasteurized, screened human milk from a registered donor milk bank.”  The six-figure ad campaign was created pro-bono by Frank About Women, a leading marketing-to-women communications group.  It has been positively received for bringing levity and a fresh approach to a persistent public health problem. Best for Babes aims to raise funds to continue the series on billboards and bus stations.   The USA Today Pregnancy & Wellness Report, produced by Media Planet, will reach 2.2 million readers in Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York; will be distributed to ob/gyn offices and physicians through the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, will be carried in all Destination Maternity stores, distributed at March of Dimes events, will be circulated to 25,000 members of the United States Breastfeeding Committee and all member organizations, and all physician members of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine. 

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The Best for Babes Foundation, a non-profit 501c3, was established in 2007 to give breastfeeding a makeover by using mainstream marketing and branding to inspire, prepare and empower moms, and to raise awareness of and fight the barriers that keep moms from achieving their personal breastfeeding goals, despite their best intentions.  The Best for Babes Web site offers breastfeeding inspiration, help for moms who don’t want to breastfeed, a ground-breaking checklist for expectant moms, important information about navigating the “booby traps,” as well as opportunities to become involved and donate.

For more information about the ad or Best for Babes, visit http://www.bestforbabes.org.

We’ve received wonderful feedback on our ground-breaking ad campaign, and have gotten a lot of interest from bloggers and websites who would like to run the ads as a public service.  We’re thrilled that others love the positive, provocative and humorous approach of the ads and want to join us in cheering on, coaching and celebrating ALL moms without pressure, judgment or guilt!   For what motivated the campaign, see the guest post we wrote for PhDinParenting.

Thanks to our wonderful friends at Frank About Women, who donated the six-figure campaign completely pro-bono, our most recent ad is now available in a variety of sizes for anyone who wants to run them, and we are giving away a magnet for every approved blog or website that participates!

Here’s how to do it:

Anyone suggestions for improving this post are welcome.  I’m technologically challenged.

1.  Grab the ads.   For help with codes to put it up on your blog, see this post.  (Special thanks to Crystal Gold of http://www.thevervepath.com!)   If you need jpeg files, email me at bestforbabes.bettina@gmail.com.

2.  Link the ad to our home page (www.bestforbabes.org) or to the ad campaign overview (http://www.bestforbabes.org/help-moms-beat-the-booby-traps/)

3. Leave a comment below announcing that you are running the ad.

4.  After I approve your site (just making sure it is not a spam request), I will contact you for your mailing address and send you a magnet.   You will have fun finding random places to put it.

5.  Bonus: Everyone who runs the ad and tweets about it will be entered into a drawing for a Best for Babes t-shirt.  Just put in your tweet:  “Our website is running the @BestforBabes ad!   Entries closed by December 31, 2009.

Special thanks to http://www.PhDinparenting.com for leading the way and putting our ad right up on the home page!   And for @cfoutz and @RobinPregnancy for pushing us to do this post.   You are all babes!

Best for Babes PSA ads are now available in these sizes:

new! 140 width (special thanks to  http://www.doudoubebe.com)

150 x 150

180 x 240

700 x 100

700 x 300

For more help with the codes to put the ad up on your blog or website, see this post.  (Special thanks to @cfoutz and http://www.thevervepath.com)

Another suggestion, from http://www.phdinparenting.com:

Here is the code that I use for the PSA on my site, http://www.phdinparenting.com:

Just drop that into a text widget and you should be good to go.

If you want to customize it or use a different image/size, then just replace the right components of the code.

E.g.

* If you want to use the images in Bettina’s post http://www.bestforbabes.org/2009/12/how-you-can-help-run-our-ad-campaign-on-your-blog-or-website-and-get-a-magnet/, then pick the one you want to use and:
o Replace http://www.bestforbabes.org/images/BfB_Final_Economic.png with the URL for the image you want to use (right click and then choose “copy image location” to get the URL for the image you want

o Replace the numbers in quotes after “width” and “height” with the numbers indicated for the image you chose (e.g. 150×150 would be width=”150″ height=”150″).

Little Silver, NJ (August 4, 2009) –The Best for Babes Foundation released a provocative new ad to coincide with World Breastfeeding Week, which takes place from August 1-7 in 150 countries.

The eye-catching ad is a visual pun with a serious message:  Not only does breastfeeding save lives every day and in emergencies, but expecting moms need more help and to be better prepared to overcome insidious and systemic barriers to breastfeeding.  The ad urges expecting mothers to find a support group, get expert lactation help, and choose hospitals and physicians that are truly breastfeeding friendly.

Best for Babes Co-Founders Bettina Forbes and Danielle Rigg contend that women are being pressured to breastfeed, but prevented from succeeding.  “Moms don’t need more pressure, judgment or guilt,” says Forbes, who initially did not want to breastfeed.  “It’s the cultural and institutional barriers—or ‘booby traps’—that are keeping moms from making informed decisions, and keeping those moms who want to breastfeed from achieving their personal breastfeeding goals,” says Rigg,  who ran a successful lactation counseling practice.

What are the barriers?  “Last year, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported that most U.S. hospitals actually thwart breastfeeding.  Add social disapproval, fear of nursing in public, insufficient insurance coverage for lactation counseling or supplies, and the beguiling and shameless promotion of infant formula, and you begin to get the full picture of how moms and babies are being thrown overboard,” asserts Forbes. “The U.S. has inadequate maternity leave policies.  While many employers offer smoking breaks, too few offer pumping breaks or lactation rooms, and breastfeeding women are not protected from being discriminated against or fired,” explains Rigg.

The new ad will run in the Fall/Winter issue of Mom & Baby and online through TheFamilyGroove.com and various blogs. Frank About Women, the nation’s leading marketing-to-women communications firm, donated the six-figure ad campaign entirely pro-bono. Leading breastfeeding experts and celebrities endorse the campaign, including Ruth Lawrence, M.D., Founder of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine and Chair of the Breastfeeding Section of the American Academy of Pediatrics; Joan Meek, M.D. Chair of the United States Breastfeeding Committee; actress and best-selling author Marilu Henner, and athelete and author Gabrielle Reece. The campaign is being backed by a growing corporate alliance of International Code Compliant companies, including Earth Mama Angel Baby, My Brest Friend, Hotslings, Pumpease, and My Baby Experts.

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The Best for Babes Foundation was established in 2007 to give breastfeeding a makeover by using mainstream marketing and branding to inspire, prepare and empower moms, and to reveal and remove the barriers that keep moms from achieving their personal breastfeeding goals, despite their best intentions.  The Best for Babes Web site offers breastfeeding inspiration, help for moms who don’t want to breastfeed, a ground-breaking checklist for expectant moms, important information about navigating the “booby traps,” as well as opportunities to become involved.

For more information about the ad or Best for Babes:

The Best for Babes Foundation

P.O. Box 454

Little Silver, New Jersey 07739

http://www.bestforbabes.org