Nestle bribes bloggers to promote a more positive image, continued
Aware of its poor image in many parenting circles, Nestlé went to the blogosphere to create a more positive image by inviting 20 top mommybloggers to attend a two-day all-expense-paid trip to California to meet with its U.S. CEO, a Nestlé chef, and a fitness expert. If that weren't enough, apparently they sent Omaha steaks to the husbands back home to keep them happy while their wives were away on this "Nestlé Family Blogger Event" junket.
Hoping to use the social media to whitewash its poor behavior, Nestlé’s damage control junket backfired when a storm was ignited on Twitter. Some women, aware of Nestlé's history, declined the trip. But many others accepted, including some breastfeeding advocates. And once the bloggers began posting on their blogs during the trip—and going on Twitter with the hashtag #nestlefamily for others to follow their tweets—the Twittersphere exploded in an hours-long heated debate, with some getting angry, some going on the defensive, and some oblivious to the larger issues. In the end, Nestlé may have created more bad press for itself than good. Hoping to convince 20 mommybloggers to say nice things about their products, they've inadvertently opened the floodgates for hundreds of bloggers and thousands of readers (unfamiliar with Nestlé's formula sales in the developing world or the Boycott Nestlé movement) to learn more about the company's unsavory marketing practices.
In trying to wine and dine the moms and feed steaks to the dads, they've drawn attention to the undisputable fact that by fostering an environment that promotes the use of infant formula, Nestlé is selling preventable illness and death to the millions of babies who could be breastfed but aren't because their mothers have been deceived by slick marketing and empty promises.
For a thorough look at the Nestlé Family event, the Twitter brouhaha, the reactions of some of the leading "responsible motherhood" bloggers—and an examination of the larger issues— there's a detailed recap from Best for Babes at http://www.bestforbabes.org/2009/10/nestle-twitter-firestorm-list-of-blogs-and-twitter-name/. The entire thread of this Twitter Firestorm can be traced through the following:
The blog www.phdinparenting.com has played a very significant role in educating moms on the internet about the WHO code, breastfeeding, and attachment parenting. The author of this blog started the Twitter Firestorm about Nestle inviting bloggers as reported by the Huffington Post, which breathed new life into the Nestle Boycott. See: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joellen-raderstorf/nestl-and-the-mommy-wars_b_312703.html. She also succeeded in persuading the BlogHer Ad Network to allow bloggers to opt-out of not only formula, but bottle advertisements so that these unwanted ads do not appear on blogs dedicated to supporting breastfeeding and the Code. See http://www.phdinparenting.com/2009/10/02/blogher-listens-and-acts-check-out-my-who-international-code-compliant-ads/
The original post on the Nestle issue is here: An open letter to the attendees of the Nestle Family Blogger Event.
Out of the event came an invitation to ask Nestle questions. She sent them 17 questions to follow up on statements they had made during the event and associated twitter storm. The questions, as well as links to all of the posts with their answers and an analysis of the answers, can be found here: Follow-up questions for Nestle. The posts analyzing their answers are as follows:
In addition to the posts, there was also a guest blogger who wrote a post about Nestle's online breastfeeding advice:
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