• Concord, MA residents vote to ban sale of plastic H2O bottles – IBWA threatens them with legal action (nice, eh) http://bit.ly/brVTih #

Powered by Twitter Tools

• The Story of Bottled Water is surging on the Viral Video Chart http://bit.ly/9r2T65 Spread the word for Earth Day at http://bit.ly/deCYqt #
• CNN: The Bottled Water Backlash (and not a moment too soon) http://edition.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/homestyle/04/22/blacklash.bottled.water/ #
• RT: @OnyaBags: Bluewashing: Why the Bottled Water Industry’s EcoFriendly Claims Don’t Hold Water: http://bit.ly/d84OiJ via @addthis #
• RT: @T0TB: University of Ottawa invests $175k to revitalize water fountains and bans bottled water. http://bit.ly/cujI7X h/t @jessiewillms #
• RT: @Tappedthemovie: Tapped is #7 on iTunes! How great are you guys?? Thank you! #
• RT: @T0TB: Tide rising against bottled water: Competitors join enviros in attacks, industry struggles to cap lost sales http://bit.ly/aqwwDf #
• Ottawa campus bans bottled water: http://www.nacsonline.com/NACS/News/Daily/Pages/ND0423106.aspx #

Powered by Twitter Tools

• Washington State slaps tax on bottled water – start of a trend? http://www.watertechonline.com/news.asp?N_ID=73860 #
• "Get Ready to Get Mad at Bottled Water" http://www.thegreengirls.com/blog/post/2010/03/Get-Ready-to-Get-Mad-at-Bottled-Water.aspx #
• The bottled water documentary Tapped is now #9 on iTunes (ahead of the Secret) @Tappedthemovie #tapped #

Powered by Twitter Tools

• Steelhead fly fishing blog heaps more misery on Nestle Waters, this time for Columbia Gorge bottling plant: http://ow.ly/1x5Im #

Powered by Twitter Tools

• Food & Water Watch launches petition drive to fight Nestle plant in Cascade Locks (4000+ signatures already) #
• Will Florida water bottlers *finally* have to pay the state for water they now get for free? #

Powered by Twitter Tools

• Blogger in Ethiopia says Nestle's not following the baby formula marketing code – even as it says it does… http://bit.ly/6pFLYS #

Powered by Twitter Tools

• RT @phdinparenting nestle should use social media for APOLOGIES to all of us for siphoning our water and selling it to us wrapped in plastic #

Powered by Twitter Tools

• Satire: NASA discovers water on the moon, wants to extract it with a giant straw, sell it to finance new missions http://tinyurl.com/ygsuljp #

Powered by Twitter Tools

• Nestle buying its way out of trouble with UN? http://www.innercitypress.com/unhcr1nestle111509.html #
• Nestle creates PR disaster with mommyblogger summit: Says it will answer questions, but disappears instead: http://ow.ly/CSel #

Powered by Twitter Tools

It seems that Nestle’s infant formula division employs tactics eerily similar to those used by their water bottling folks when confronted by inconvenient facts – including those that directly contradict the company’s own spin.

In the bottled water world, Nestle representatives have categorically stated they have never harmed a watershed or aquifer, yet a judge in Michigan clearly disagreed, and the company – faced with yet another losing effort in court – clearly agreed when they capitulated to a lower pumping limit in Mecosta County.

In other words, their representative lied, and it’s a pattern that plays out over and over.

In this case, it reared its head on a diastrous PR program aimed at promoting their products to “mommybloggers” who were wined and dined at a lavish seminar.

The Boycott Nestle Web site (focused on Nestle’s infant formula record [which is abominable]) recounted the whole sordid story:

But critics of the company countered that the event was a public
relations ploy in reaction to an ongoing boycott of Nestle for
marketing baby milk formula as a substitute for breast feeding in
developing countries.

In fact, before the trip, critics reached out to the bloggers invited to California and urged them to not go.

No one canceled.

As
the event got underway, the online conversation quickly turned into an
online battlefield. The company’s Twitter channel was so inundated with
anti-Nestle messages, and nasty accusations aimed at the attendees,
that it was essentially shut down. The company, caught off guard, let
the parents field questions aimed at executives until finally stepping
into the fray.

—Extract ends

I saw
several bloggers say they had been invited to the event and refused to
go. Not the same as canceling, but bloggers on the invitation list were
not all blind to the conflicts of interest in attending, even if
unaware of the boycott.

Nestlé is one of the
four most boycotted companies on the planet, according to an
independent survey, because it is found to be responsible for more
violations of the marketing standards for baby foods than any other
company.

The LA Times article is a little lazy
in characterising the posts to the #nestlefamily hashtag as
‘anti-Nestlé messages’ and ‘accusations aimed at the attendees’. The
vast majority of posts were raising concerns about Nestlé practices and
posting links to evidence (I became aware of the event through traffic
to our sites) and responding to specific requests from some attendees
for questions to put to executives, including the Chief Executive of
Nestlé USA.

Nestlé came online briefly and
offered to take questions. I offered to take part in a tweet debate
directly with Nestlé on behalf of Baby Milk Action, but this was not
taken up. Nestlé stayed on line for an hour or so, promising to come
back the next day to respond to questions, but did not.

The fact is Nestlé runs from fora where there are people with the knowledge to challenge its bland assurances that it markets formula ‘ethically and responsibly’ (a claim that the UK Advertising Standards Authority found to be untrue when Nestlé made it in an anti-boycott advertisement). It not only ran from the questions on Twitter, it now refuses to debate with Baby Milk Action, after we won a series of them from 2001 – 2004. Nestlé refused to attend a European Parliament Public Hearing in 2000, when UNICEF Legal Officer was present to address questions regarding interpretation of the marketing requirements Nestlé should be following (Nestlé claims its own interpretation is correct, while dismissing all others, including UNICEF). And Nestlé refuses to even set out its terms and conditions for participating in an independent expert tribunal into its policies and practices.

Nestlé prefers to direct people to its own website and provide written answers, but not defend them when these are scrutinised, perhaps hoping the majority will accept its assurances at face value. Those who do look closer generally come away more shocked and dismayed at Nestlé’s deceit as it tries to defend practices that contribute to the unnecessary death and suffering of infants.

Nestlé’s reticence to engage with informed critics can be understood given how its response to questions put by the PhD in Parenting blog has fueled concerns rather than dissuaded those looking at this issue. Nestlé’s answers have been posted in full on the blog, and can be found via:
http://www.phdinparenting.com/2009/10/03/follow-up-questions-for-nestle/

As is often the case, Nestlé’s attempt to divert criticism became a PR disaster and gave International Nestlé-Free Week a boost in the US in its third year. The week aims to encourage boycotters to do more and non-boycotters to do something to increase the pressure on Nestlé. Boycotting has forced some changes and greater involvement can only help. See: http://boycottnestle.blogspot.com/2009/10/boycott-successes.html

Nestle, as it has been noted, promised to address questions, but clearly never did – at least when those questions became uncomfortable.

nestle, nestle waters, nestle infant formula boycott, phd in parenting, boycott nestle blog

• Nestle shows "commitment to the Hispanic community" by opening Nestle water store in Bronx?? http://tinyurl.com/yfvebxc #

Powered by Twitter Tools

• More on Nestle's (now) controversial plan to dig backup well in Guelph with little or no notice… http://tinyurl.com/yb5l3y2 #
• Producers of bottled water documentary "Tapped" suggest Nestle trying to limit distribution: http://ow.ly/Cej4 #
• RT @phylogenomics: Water found on moon – next up – Nestle to start bottling plant – "moon water makes you glow" #

Powered by Twitter Tools