Why am I the last to see this video? I guess that because my kids aren’t babies, I’m not on the sites where it must be running. Anyway, I love this and would like to know who wrote it. Meantime: Have fun. What a great message!
I kept waiting for those babies to scream “shut up!!!”, squirm away from their mothers, and get up a good game of Red Rover or stickball or something.
Hancock on
Meh. I didn’t like it. It was so over the top, mocking, and extreme that I was turned off. But most of my other friends liked it.
Jane on
lol…After all that posturing, I kinda expected all the parents to jump on runaway stroller mom and give her a sound beating. Good message. 🙂
Tsu Dho Nimh on
It’s from Similac, the formula manufacturer.
I like the reference to “The Battleship Potemkin,” when Sergei Eisenstein sent a baby carriage careening down the steps of Odessa’s harbor as the mother bleeds to death.
pentamom on
I hate to rain on the parade, but I’m not sure it would have been 100% harmony afterward in real life. Where were the angry moms yelling at the one who “carelessly” let the stroller get away?
Alexander on
The video ended early and on a positive note.
However, had it continued for another 5 minutes or so, all those moms would start telling the lady that let her kid roll down the hill that she’s a terrible human being that doesn’t deserve to have children because she took her eyes off the baby for .2 seconds.
I also found the idea of mothers going forward to brawl with babies strapped to their chest a tinge troubling for my tastes. Maybe I just have an under developed sense of humor.
pentamom on
“I also found the idea of mothers going forward to brawl with babies strapped to their chest a tinge troubling for my tastes. Maybe I just have an under developed sense of humor.”
I don’t think the humor was all that well done, but that didn’t bother me. That was sort of “What would it look like if all the things moms said to each other were translated into action?”
pentamom on
It figures that it was from a formula manufacturer. The breastfeeding moms were obnoxious about bottle feeding, but the only obnoxious things the bottle feeding moms said were about how obnoxious the breast feeding moms were. They never insulted breast feeding itself, because it wouldn’t be allowed to depict bottle feeding moms as actually nasty.
You know, that was a great video, up until the very end where they screwed it up. The “sisterhood” of motherhood? So the dads they showed aren’t allowed in the club? Especially that gay couple, who don’t even have a sister/mother at home, like the other dads might? Great. Why bother having the dads there at all if they were going to be excluded at the end?
Excellent routine, but only a 7.0 for gross failure to stick the landing.
Angie
Heather on
This is an advertisement created by one of the largest formula producers in he world, and is in strick violation of the international WHO code. In the interest of respecting that code and not offering advertising support to a formula manufacture, I kindly request that you remove this from you website.
Asparagus Freak on
Lots of hilarious moments! Lame-o ending.
(Plus, did the majority of them just abandon their babies at the end when they all ran after the stroller? WHERE ARE THE BABIES??)
hineata on
‘WHERE ARE THE BABIES?’
Off trying to wow Clint Eastwood at the ‘American Sniper’ auditions….a shame none of them met his exacting standards.
ARM on
I thought it was kind of overdone and obvious, more than funny. Also, is it just me, or is this trope of parents (especially moms) fighting to the death over parenting styles a bit exaggerated? Yes, online discussions can be that way, especially forums dedicated to a particular parenting theory, but I actually don’t know many parents in real life who are aggressive about imposing their theories on other parents. If anything, I think we all tend to assume we’re being criticized by the very fact that somebody else does stuff differently, even if they aren’t actually criticizing us. Or do I just happen to know unusually nice people or something?
RJ on
The fact hat it was made by a company that makes horrible artificial baby
formula that I would not feed to a pig spoiled it r=for me
MichaelF on
I remember something like this from years ago…probably why you aren’t seeing it.
Tamara on
I kinda laughed , until I realized it was a Similac ad. It would have been cooler if it was a non profit, let’s all just get along type of PSA, but no, always selling!
I was really waiting, at the end when they caught the run away baby, for someone to pull out their cell phone and call 911 on that baby’s momma.
Made as an ad for Similac. That’s why all the breastfeeding moms were covered up like what they were doing was inappropriate for the public to see. They had to hide their babies unlike the bottle feeding moms who were feeding their babies for all the world to see. Formula companies’ abilities to try to shame breastfeeding mothers while chastising them for judging bottle feeding moms is impressive in its scope, subtlety, and relentlessness,
donald on
I love it! It’s a satire of how people can get so opinionated, they ‘through the baby out with the bathwater’ The movie is exaggerated but it’s so true. Also many of the replies on this blog show how much we like to nitpick
hineata on
@RJ…haven’t tried Similac. Is it a particularly nasty powder? I know my youngest loved her formula – Nutricia maybe, can’t remember now – and I would have thought all milk powders tasted similar. That’s rather the point, seeing they are milk substitutes.
And piglets would get their own style of powder milk, so no worries there 😊.
I’m tempted to go buy a tin of Similac now just to test how foul it is, so maybe advertising works after all….
Kate on
Wow. It looks like the overall message of this ad was lost on a few of you, who are bringing the mommy wars to this website, of all places.
This ad made me cry quite a bit–what a sweet sentiment.
lollipoplover on
“Drug free pool birth, dolphin assisted.”
“I pump during conference calls.”
This was like Mean Girls 3- We’re parents now.
I liked it and the message but wished it was more a community education one- like “We’re all parents and make different choices. Stop calling 911 on each other and start looking out for each other you fools.”
But it was from Similac formula and so that was the let down.
Kind of like the let down in this one because it’s such a great commercial but such a shitty beer! And it’s the animal version of protecting our vulnerable:
It is a fantastic video clip and message…just a shame it’s sponsered by similac. :-/ such a let down after such a great clip to see an ad for a horrible company that doesn’t really care about the babies.
AnnMarie on
I thought it was quite funny, as a wanted-to-breastfeed-but couldn’t, formula-feeding, working Mom with a stay at home Dad, stroller-hating, baby-wearing….anyway, I could see myself in some of these people, and I certainly heard my friends in these people.
Who cars that it came from a formula company? Sure, would be awesome if a PSA, but honestly, it needed financing. I do think breastfeeding is best, but know that not everyone can do it for a myriad of reasons.
p.s. to a prior commenter: I think the breastfed babies are hidden because only the baby at the end is real! The bottle-fed babies aren’t seen either. Also, every woman I know does cover her baby up when feeding in public. It’s not required, but the woman I know personally want to. (I would have too–no one else needs to see my breasts!)
hineata on
OK, I have to know! What is so wrong with Similac? Do they lace their powders with dried monkey skulls or something? Because I can’t seem to find anything controversial about them on the net.
Or is it just the breastfeeding vs bottle debate again?
Ann in L.A. on
Like others above, I was waiting for someone to call the police or CPS to report the negligent parent.
Ceridwen on
Lenore, you’re not the last one to see the video – I am. I didn’t see it until after you’d seen and posted it.
I liked it. It was funny, and cute. I liked the trash talk, I liked the total OMG moment, I liked how the guys finally caught up to it, with the pack of running mommies breathing a single group sigh of relief behind them. IMO, the various parts were too cliched to be called original, but the originality came in the way the different cliches were ordered to form a story.
gina on
Agree with all the anti-advertising folks. Agree with the comments about “sisterhood” not including Dads….
Now here’s where I’m going to get into trouble: There ARE better and worse ways to parent and I don’t think every person with a child is a “parent first”. No, we shouldn’t judge other parents because we don’t know their journeys, but to imply that EVERY style of parenting is ok is wrong.
CLamb on
I was expected a plea at the end for “dead man” brakes on prams.
Brian on
Boy, the shrill nasty lactivists posting on this comment thread are sure making me rethink the message that we should stop being jerks to each other over parenting methods!
It does seem odd to include the stay-at-home dads and then make the slogan “The Sisterhood of Motherhood,” but we don’t really have a non-gendered equivalent of “sisterhood.”
Tamara on
Also, every woman I know does cover her baby up when feeding in public. It’s not required, but the woman I know personally want to. (I would have too—no one else needs to see my breasts!)
I *usually* covered up when in public but there were times when I was somewhere unprepared (I was actually a bad mum this way, I tossed the diaper bag and all accessories when my firstborn was about 6 weeks old. all she ever wanted was to nurse anyway) and I had no problems just nursing her wherever I was. It was never a problem, besides the odd look, until my kids were older. They both nursed for several years and as they got to past about 2 years old the looks got weirder so we only nursed at home. I resented it. The kids did too. I do laugh at no one needed to see my breasts comment – how true! I did feel that way too, still do but I tried my very best to make sure no one ever really saw anything.
Brian, is that what you mean by nasty lactivism? ’cause I just see discussion.
pentamom on
hineata, I don’t think there’s anything particularly nasty about Similac. I think you’re just hearing from people who think all artificial baby formula is eeeeeeevil. “Lactivists,” as someone else said.
KBrooklyn on
It is not an ad for rat poison; it is an ad for baby formula, which has saved the lives of millions of infants since its invention.
Do these commenters who are implying otherwise hear themselves? Against the WHO code? Really?????
Abigail on
As a formula fed baby – I grew up to exclusively breastfeed both my kids beyond the first year. AND I reduced my sister to tears when I called her a part-time parent. The message I got: stop judging! There are a million right ways to parent and we can embrace them without ridicule (heck, we might even learn something). I don’t want to like a formula ad, but I’m big enough to be humbled all the same.
Emily Morris on
I like the video. It’s a cute satire with a needed message.
Margot on
Hilarious. Love it. Thanks for sharing.
Yep, who cares how you do it. Parenting with intention is the new parenting. Whether we’re breastfeeding, home birthing, baby wearing, attachment seeking, free-ranging, tiger mumming or whatever, we’re doing it with intention, so mostly “The kids are alright.”
hineata on
Take Pentamom, thought that might be the case, but after the melamine baby formula horror on China, wondered if maybe Similac had done something similar. Obviously not, then. …they’re just another company providing a product some people find useful /essential. Sheesh….thought they might actually be interesting 😊😊😊.
And I love the word ‘lactivist’…my new vocabulary item for the day.
hineata on
And one thing my kids loved about me formula-feeding the last baby, aside from the fact that she ceased crying so much once she was getting a decent feed, was the tins. Those suckers are useful! We had drums, stilts, shakers, paint containers etc for several years after she was past formula milk.
Boobs just can’t quite manage the above, though I did feel like a punching bag sometimes 😊.
JKP on
I may be wrong, but is the outrage over supporting the formula company’s advertising less about breastfeeding vs bottle feeding as a parenting choice and more about how many babies in 3rd world countries die because these companies manipulate women out of breastfeeding?
In other countries where there are fewer restrictions on how formula companies can advertise, they are able to convince large numbers of women NOT to breastfeed, despite the fact that they are too poor to afford enough formula to feed their babies and don’t have clean water to make it with, and thus babies die from formula feeding who would have lived with breastfeeding.
I think that’s what a previous poster meant when referencing the WHO code.
Marcie on
YES thank you JKP for stating what many of us in the first world tend to forget. We have the luxury of breast-feeding vs. formula feeding often being a parenting choice. Women and their babies who have no access to clean water and no money to buy formula once the initial free samples run out (the the breast-milk has dried up) suffer greatly from the advertising of these formula companies.
Great advertising that promotes the sale of breastmilk substitutes periodically shown to be unsafe, as well as promoting breast shame, the sale of bras (linked to breast cancer), textile fashion madness, and body shame that contributes to the mass hysteria over nudity and sex – and eventual female sexual dysfunction.
hineata on
@sexhysteria – seriously? Show me an ad in the English speaking world where women aren’t wearing bras and covering their chests. It’s called culture. And I don’t know where you get the nonsense about ‘female sexual dysfunction’ from. Since when did wearing clothes in public affect what goes on in the bedroom?
hineata on
@JKP. What you say makes some sense. Sad/disgusting if true, though the info I can find relates mainly to Nestle. However I still would have used formula for my youngest. It greatly beats either condensed milk or hunger, and in the First World, where we actually live, water hygiene is not an issue.
@Marcie..again, we don’t live in the 3rd world. Of course we are privileged.
And while baby formula and clean water exist, we can continue to enjoy the privilege of choice. I for one am grateful for it.
Veg Mama on
The fact is that formula is far inferior to breast milk and use of cow milk during infancy is a risk factor for type 1 diabetes.
The add is fun, but at the same time trivializes the significant differences in these choices.
For profit corporations can pay millions to place their slick adds that make fun of individuals who would try to help their fellow parents learn the risks (since the pediatricians, the networks and the health programs at school are all captive.)
So, I will just be the caricature and say it anyhow: there are serious health risks associated with cow milk consumption. If you can’t breastfeed, I would look into alternatives to cow milk formula such as human donor milk or goat milk-based formula. If you already gave cow milk formula because you didn’t know, I would consider going cow milk free now and looking into ways to reduce the risk of autoimmune disease for your children.
But no, in the spirit of this website, do not have anxiety over it. Use knowledge to make a better informed decision to act or to not act, and then get back to enjoying living life unafraid.
Heather on
These are all first-time mums. No wonder they still get caught up in the ‘everyone is judging, I will judge’ hysteria.
I only have one child, but I have close friends with multiples, and they all say that their completely reliable trick for child 1 never worked for child 2. I guess the judging falls off when you realise that everyone does it differently because everyone’s child is different.
It’s a pity the line at the end excluded the dads, but at least they showed some.
Be nice, folks. This site is about knowing what works for your kids and your life, and that includes the baby stuff.
H
Nicole R on
How on Earth did this discussion turn into the exact thing the video is satirizing to begin with?
The point is, the arguing doesn’t help the babies! If the caricatures in the video can learn that it’s petty when compared to real danger, why can’t we?
Beth on
So, do the lactivists get an alert every time a site they’ve never even visited posts anything even remotely formula-related, so they go to said site and lecture the idiots on the errors of their ways?
I hate this term but it seems to apply in this case…get a life. And leave others to live theirs.
Donna on
Thank you Lenore for proving that the mommy wars do exist … and I mean in your comments section. Too bad the message in the video seems to go right over their heads.
Buffy on
I would like to see a link to a reputable, peer-reviewed, and possibly replicated study proving a link between bras and breast cancer. Thanks.
CrazyCatLady on
Did anyone else notice the squirt of milk go across the shot? Too funny!
I “thought” about putting it up in one group that I am in, but the fact that Simlac made it would (like here) overshadow the message that “WE NEED TO STOP JUDGING EACH OTHER!” We are ALL doing the best we can.
Judging I have seen on that page:
Photos taken in parking lots of babies improperly strapped in seat. (Posted, but they didn’t actually TALK to the parent about the issues.)
Woman who had crying infant in baby seat in store and a toddler. “OMG, why won’t she pick up that baby!” My response “OMG, WHY didn’t YOU offer to help by holding baby or dealing with toddler?”
Most recently, BLAMING a mother whose 5 year old died from the flu when the mother of the child told media that she wanted everyone to get the flu shot to avoid what happened to her. Women were saying she was a bad mother for not getting her child to the hospital sooner. (From experience with Swine Flu, conditions can change very fast.)
Wearing your child, but not with the right carrier. Using cloth diapers, but not the right cloth diapers. Using formula….at all. (At 4 month, if we went hiking my daughter refused to breast feed – she wanted to look around. A bottle was the answer. With DRY formula because that would stay safe until mixed.) Getting vaccinated, not using homeopathic medicines or essential oils. Eating anything that is not organic. Occasionally, letting your kid go to the park alone.
I stay with the group because they do have some good gardeners there that are helpful for me. And sometimes I can be the voice of reason and at least get in another viewpoint. But this video did totally remind me of them.
CrazyCatLady on
The women who are totally against formula do have an alternative. You are supposed to use GOAT milk, instead of formula if you can’t breast feed, according to the people I know. The fact that it comes in a BPA lined can if you don’t have goat seems to escape them….and, substituting one mammal with another who despite having kids instead of calves, seems to possibly leave some of the same holes in the feeding that formula/milk would. (For the record, I eat food from lined cans.)
Jenny Islander on
@CrazyCatLady: It’s closer in nutritional profile to human milk than, for example, cow’s milk, but it still needs some adjustment.
I’m very glad that I was able to BF all three because night feedings were so much simpler–although I should note that the baby of the moment slept in a sidecar on a level with the mattress, so all I had to do was roll over and sometimes neither of us even woke up! Also, there are hellish allergies on the dad’s side of the family; after one of his brothers almost died on one type of formula after another and had to be raised on bananas and rice(?!), I didn’t want to find out about allergies the hard way myself.
But I’m also glad that formula is available for people like my friend, who would die without regular doses of a medication that dries up breastmilk as a side effect.
I just wish that her medical team had bothered to tell her that before she took her first baby in for inability to settle, dehydration, and inexplicable weight loss. And that they hadn’t been so cavalier about it–“Oh, doop de doo, whateverrrrr, no biggie.” Yes, biggie. And I wish that the conventional wisdom still didn’t push formula (measure, mix, clean, clean, clean, and, oh yes, pay, pay, pay) as the “convenient” alternative for absolutely everyone while failing to provide basic assistance for mothers who had never even seen anybody breastfeed before. There is so much ignorance! I asked a young doctor about tandem nursing of a newborn and a toddler, because I had lent my LLL book out and couldn’t remember the recommendations, and his eyes about bugged out of his head! He had never heard of such a thing! Gee, thanks, Nestle.
At least it’s a step up from the days when advertising had convinced doctors(!) that a breastfeeding mother was some kind of tick-picking primitive and spoiling her baby besides.
@hineata You shouldn’t dismiss what you aren’t informed about. There is general agreement among sex therapists that body shame contributes to female sexual dysfunction, and the physiologial basis of clitoral erectile dysfunction (search those keywords on the web), i.e. neural pruning as a result of disuse during development, are in no dispute.
hineata on
U mm. ..so what? Am sorry I encouraged you in any way. Please forget I directed another comment to you. There are plenty of websites that cater to your particular issues. I politely suggest you find a more appropriate site to direct your message.
Buffy on
Come on “sexhysteria”, the bra thing. Back up your assertions; let’s have it.
Tsu Dho Nimh on
@Buffy “I would like to see a link to a reputable, peer-reviewed, and possibly replicated study proving a link between bras and breast cancer. Thanks.”
There is a correlation, but it’s because women with large breasts tend to wear bras more than the 32AAs of the world.
Large breasts = more tissue
More tissue = higher risk that some cell is going to mutate into cancer
And by coincidence, those women probably have been wearing bras for more years and for more hours a day than women with small breasts. It’s a comfort thing, there is no causal relationship.
Buffy on
That does not explain how wearing a bra causes the cancer. The tissue is there whether supported by a bra or not.
map on
sorry, but anyone NOT that runaway stroller baby’s mother would be calling CPS – just sayin’- I lived in mommy-contest suburban hell for 18 years- they called me “erin brokovitch”. I was reported to CPS for giving my kid Gardisil shots at age 14 lol. Im so glad it is over.
Mark Davis on
I loved it. Thank you for posting, and please don’t be cowed into taking it down.
SOA on
I thought it was cute but I guess I am too bitter to really enjoy it. I know in reality instead of helping that mother catch her kid they would do what has happened to me before and just stand there staring and judging you for making a mistake and then running their mouths about you to everyone later for being a bad parent. That is my reality.
I have too many parents bad mouthing me to think they really just want my kids to be taken care of and safe. Nope. I have had people threaten to give my peanut allergic son peanut butter to kill him or toughen him up or prove we are faking it. I have had people tell me I should just homeschool my autistic son and not let him leave the house or try to get him to be okay at regular school like everyone else.
So yeah, sorry but my bitterness is too high to believe most people give a shit about my kids or me.
Buffy on
Dolly, no one was trying to kill your son. And if they were, you need to call the cops and have them prosecuted for premeditated attempted murder. I’m guessing you didn’t do that.
Veg Mama on
Just because people share information doesn’t necessarily mean they are judging you or telling you what to do.
While it is a fact that is suppressed by the formula industry that breast milk is nearly always safer and healthier for babies, there are cases where this is not true and then there are many other factors that go into the choice that could be just as important for the total health of the family (including psychologically.) So even if I wanted to narrowly “judge” someone for their choice, I couldn’t.
I feel that adds like these want to promote the idea that info sharing means judgement and war so that only they can share information.
I think a better idea is to see people’s information as leads for further study (or not) and possible things to weigh into your decisions without hearing it as a guilt-trip or an attack on you.
The only judgement connected to my info sharing (that human milk is superior to formula and that cow-formula carries extra risks) is at the companies who don’t want you to know these things as you make your decision for your family. If you think I am “at war” with you or any other mom for feeding formula, you are making an incorrect assumption.
There is judging and war that goes on- people do call the cops on people they feel are not making the choices they thin they should, but please don’t compare information sharing to such actions. (Although Similac would love you to do so…)
SOA on
notice I said “threaten”. Threatening to do that anonymously on the internet, is not really something worth calling the cops about. But if you go to any comment section on any article about food allergies, you will find multiple comments from people saying we should just let food allergy kids die or that they are going to smear pb on the door handles at their local school etc. I have read it over and over and over again. So yeah, it made me bitter enough that I don’t trust or believe all parents care about my kid. Not when they go out of their way to type something like that.
Amanda Matthews on
I lost interest when they started demonizing the breastfeeding moms. I knew then it was from a formula company – I didn’t realize they were not suppose to advertise.
I never covered up while breastfeeding. The baby’s head covered my boob anyway, and his/her mouth was of course over the nipple. I breastfed while in lines, while grocery shopping, while waiting at the doctor’s office etc. and only a few pushy people who got way too close while asking if they could see the baby realized I was breastfeeding at the time (at which point they either showed their support or backed away very quickly, lol).
64 Comments
I kept waiting for those babies to scream “shut up!!!”, squirm away from their mothers, and get up a good game of Red Rover or stickball or something.
Meh. I didn’t like it. It was so over the top, mocking, and extreme that I was turned off. But most of my other friends liked it.
lol…After all that posturing, I kinda expected all the parents to jump on runaway stroller mom and give her a sound beating. Good message. 🙂
It’s from Similac, the formula manufacturer.
I like the reference to “The Battleship Potemkin,” when Sergei Eisenstein sent a baby carriage careening down the steps of Odessa’s harbor as the mother bleeds to death.
I hate to rain on the parade, but I’m not sure it would have been 100% harmony afterward in real life. Where were the angry moms yelling at the one who “carelessly” let the stroller get away?
The video ended early and on a positive note.
However, had it continued for another 5 minutes or so, all those moms would start telling the lady that let her kid roll down the hill that she’s a terrible human being that doesn’t deserve to have children because she took her eyes off the baby for .2 seconds.
I also found the idea of mothers going forward to brawl with babies strapped to their chest a tinge troubling for my tastes. Maybe I just have an under developed sense of humor.
“I also found the idea of mothers going forward to brawl with babies strapped to their chest a tinge troubling for my tastes. Maybe I just have an under developed sense of humor.”
I don’t think the humor was all that well done, but that didn’t bother me. That was sort of “What would it look like if all the things moms said to each other were translated into action?”
It figures that it was from a formula manufacturer. The breastfeeding moms were obnoxious about bottle feeding, but the only obnoxious things the bottle feeding moms said were about how obnoxious the breast feeding moms were. They never insulted breast feeding itself, because it wouldn’t be allowed to depict bottle feeding moms as actually nasty.
You know, that was a great video, up until the very end where they screwed it up. The “sisterhood” of motherhood? So the dads they showed aren’t allowed in the club? Especially that gay couple, who don’t even have a sister/mother at home, like the other dads might? Great. Why bother having the dads there at all if they were going to be excluded at the end?
Excellent routine, but only a 7.0 for gross failure to stick the landing.
Angie
This is an advertisement created by one of the largest formula producers in he world, and is in strick violation of the international WHO code. In the interest of respecting that code and not offering advertising support to a formula manufacture, I kindly request that you remove this from you website.
Lots of hilarious moments! Lame-o ending.
(Plus, did the majority of them just abandon their babies at the end when they all ran after the stroller? WHERE ARE THE BABIES??)
‘WHERE ARE THE BABIES?’
Off trying to wow Clint Eastwood at the ‘American Sniper’ auditions….a shame none of them met his exacting standards.
I thought it was kind of overdone and obvious, more than funny. Also, is it just me, or is this trope of parents (especially moms) fighting to the death over parenting styles a bit exaggerated? Yes, online discussions can be that way, especially forums dedicated to a particular parenting theory, but I actually don’t know many parents in real life who are aggressive about imposing their theories on other parents. If anything, I think we all tend to assume we’re being criticized by the very fact that somebody else does stuff differently, even if they aren’t actually criticizing us. Or do I just happen to know unusually nice people or something?
The fact hat it was made by a company that makes horrible artificial baby
formula that I would not feed to a pig spoiled it r=for me
I remember something like this from years ago…probably why you aren’t seeing it.
I kinda laughed , until I realized it was a Similac ad. It would have been cooler if it was a non profit, let’s all just get along type of PSA, but no, always selling!
I was really waiting, at the end when they caught the run away baby, for someone to pull out their cell phone and call 911 on that baby’s momma.
Made as an ad for Similac. That’s why all the breastfeeding moms were covered up like what they were doing was inappropriate for the public to see. They had to hide their babies unlike the bottle feeding moms who were feeding their babies for all the world to see. Formula companies’ abilities to try to shame breastfeeding mothers while chastising them for judging bottle feeding moms is impressive in its scope, subtlety, and relentlessness,
I love it! It’s a satire of how people can get so opinionated, they ‘through the baby out with the bathwater’ The movie is exaggerated but it’s so true. Also many of the replies on this blog show how much we like to nitpick
@RJ…haven’t tried Similac. Is it a particularly nasty powder? I know my youngest loved her formula – Nutricia maybe, can’t remember now – and I would have thought all milk powders tasted similar. That’s rather the point, seeing they are milk substitutes.
And piglets would get their own style of powder milk, so no worries there 😊.
I’m tempted to go buy a tin of Similac now just to test how foul it is, so maybe advertising works after all….
Wow. It looks like the overall message of this ad was lost on a few of you, who are bringing the mommy wars to this website, of all places.
This ad made me cry quite a bit–what a sweet sentiment.
“Drug free pool birth, dolphin assisted.”
“I pump during conference calls.”
This was like Mean Girls 3- We’re parents now.
I liked it and the message but wished it was more a community education one- like “We’re all parents and make different choices. Stop calling 911 on each other and start looking out for each other you fools.”
But it was from Similac formula and so that was the let down.
Kind of like the let down in this one because it’s such a great commercial but such a shitty beer! And it’s the animal version of protecting our vulnerable:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAsjRRMMg_Q&feature=youtu.be
Seeing the video first makes reading the comments here much, much funnier.
It is a fantastic video clip and message…just a shame it’s sponsered by similac. :-/ such a let down after such a great clip to see an ad for a horrible company that doesn’t really care about the babies.
I thought it was quite funny, as a wanted-to-breastfeed-but couldn’t, formula-feeding, working Mom with a stay at home Dad, stroller-hating, baby-wearing….anyway, I could see myself in some of these people, and I certainly heard my friends in these people.
Who cars that it came from a formula company? Sure, would be awesome if a PSA, but honestly, it needed financing. I do think breastfeeding is best, but know that not everyone can do it for a myriad of reasons.
p.s. to a prior commenter: I think the breastfed babies are hidden because only the baby at the end is real! The bottle-fed babies aren’t seen either. Also, every woman I know does cover her baby up when feeding in public. It’s not required, but the woman I know personally want to. (I would have too–no one else needs to see my breasts!)
OK, I have to know! What is so wrong with Similac? Do they lace their powders with dried monkey skulls or something? Because I can’t seem to find anything controversial about them on the net.
Or is it just the breastfeeding vs bottle debate again?
Like others above, I was waiting for someone to call the police or CPS to report the negligent parent.
Lenore, you’re not the last one to see the video – I am. I didn’t see it until after you’d seen and posted it.
I liked it. It was funny, and cute. I liked the trash talk, I liked the total OMG moment, I liked how the guys finally caught up to it, with the pack of running mommies breathing a single group sigh of relief behind them. IMO, the various parts were too cliched to be called original, but the originality came in the way the different cliches were ordered to form a story.
Agree with all the anti-advertising folks. Agree with the comments about “sisterhood” not including Dads….
Now here’s where I’m going to get into trouble: There ARE better and worse ways to parent and I don’t think every person with a child is a “parent first”. No, we shouldn’t judge other parents because we don’t know their journeys, but to imply that EVERY style of parenting is ok is wrong.
I was expected a plea at the end for “dead man” brakes on prams.
Boy, the shrill nasty lactivists posting on this comment thread are sure making me rethink the message that we should stop being jerks to each other over parenting methods!
It does seem odd to include the stay-at-home dads and then make the slogan “The Sisterhood of Motherhood,” but we don’t really have a non-gendered equivalent of “sisterhood.”
Also, every woman I know does cover her baby up when feeding in public. It’s not required, but the woman I know personally want to. (I would have too—no one else needs to see my breasts!)
I *usually* covered up when in public but there were times when I was somewhere unprepared (I was actually a bad mum this way, I tossed the diaper bag and all accessories when my firstborn was about 6 weeks old. all she ever wanted was to nurse anyway) and I had no problems just nursing her wherever I was. It was never a problem, besides the odd look, until my kids were older. They both nursed for several years and as they got to past about 2 years old the looks got weirder so we only nursed at home. I resented it. The kids did too. I do laugh at no one needed to see my breasts comment – how true! I did feel that way too, still do but I tried my very best to make sure no one ever really saw anything.
Brian, is that what you mean by nasty lactivism? ’cause I just see discussion.
hineata, I don’t think there’s anything particularly nasty about Similac. I think you’re just hearing from people who think all artificial baby formula is eeeeeeevil. “Lactivists,” as someone else said.
It is not an ad for rat poison; it is an ad for baby formula, which has saved the lives of millions of infants since its invention.
Do these commenters who are implying otherwise hear themselves? Against the WHO code? Really?????
As a formula fed baby – I grew up to exclusively breastfeed both my kids beyond the first year. AND I reduced my sister to tears when I called her a part-time parent. The message I got: stop judging! There are a million right ways to parent and we can embrace them without ridicule (heck, we might even learn something). I don’t want to like a formula ad, but I’m big enough to be humbled all the same.
I like the video. It’s a cute satire with a needed message.
Hilarious. Love it. Thanks for sharing.
Yep, who cares how you do it. Parenting with intention is the new parenting. Whether we’re breastfeeding, home birthing, baby wearing, attachment seeking, free-ranging, tiger mumming or whatever, we’re doing it with intention, so mostly “The kids are alright.”
Take Pentamom, thought that might be the case, but after the melamine baby formula horror on China, wondered if maybe Similac had done something similar. Obviously not, then. …they’re just another company providing a product some people find useful /essential. Sheesh….thought they might actually be interesting 😊😊😊.
And I love the word ‘lactivist’…my new vocabulary item for the day.
And one thing my kids loved about me formula-feeding the last baby, aside from the fact that she ceased crying so much once she was getting a decent feed, was the tins. Those suckers are useful! We had drums, stilts, shakers, paint containers etc for several years after she was past formula milk.
Boobs just can’t quite manage the above, though I did feel like a punching bag sometimes 😊.
I may be wrong, but is the outrage over supporting the formula company’s advertising less about breastfeeding vs bottle feeding as a parenting choice and more about how many babies in 3rd world countries die because these companies manipulate women out of breastfeeding?
In other countries where there are fewer restrictions on how formula companies can advertise, they are able to convince large numbers of women NOT to breastfeed, despite the fact that they are too poor to afford enough formula to feed their babies and don’t have clean water to make it with, and thus babies die from formula feeding who would have lived with breastfeeding.
I think that’s what a previous poster meant when referencing the WHO code.
YES thank you JKP for stating what many of us in the first world tend to forget. We have the luxury of breast-feeding vs. formula feeding often being a parenting choice. Women and their babies who have no access to clean water and no money to buy formula once the initial free samples run out (the the breast-milk has dried up) suffer greatly from the advertising of these formula companies.
Great advertising that promotes the sale of breastmilk substitutes periodically shown to be unsafe, as well as promoting breast shame, the sale of bras (linked to breast cancer), textile fashion madness, and body shame that contributes to the mass hysteria over nudity and sex – and eventual female sexual dysfunction.
@sexhysteria – seriously? Show me an ad in the English speaking world where women aren’t wearing bras and covering their chests. It’s called culture. And I don’t know where you get the nonsense about ‘female sexual dysfunction’ from. Since when did wearing clothes in public affect what goes on in the bedroom?
@JKP. What you say makes some sense. Sad/disgusting if true, though the info I can find relates mainly to Nestle. However I still would have used formula for my youngest. It greatly beats either condensed milk or hunger, and in the First World, where we actually live, water hygiene is not an issue.
@Marcie..again, we don’t live in the 3rd world. Of course we are privileged.
And while baby formula and clean water exist, we can continue to enjoy the privilege of choice. I for one am grateful for it.
The fact is that formula is far inferior to breast milk and use of cow milk during infancy is a risk factor for type 1 diabetes.
The add is fun, but at the same time trivializes the significant differences in these choices.
For profit corporations can pay millions to place their slick adds that make fun of individuals who would try to help their fellow parents learn the risks (since the pediatricians, the networks and the health programs at school are all captive.)
So, I will just be the caricature and say it anyhow: there are serious health risks associated with cow milk consumption. If you can’t breastfeed, I would look into alternatives to cow milk formula such as human donor milk or goat milk-based formula. If you already gave cow milk formula because you didn’t know, I would consider going cow milk free now and looking into ways to reduce the risk of autoimmune disease for your children.
But no, in the spirit of this website, do not have anxiety over it. Use knowledge to make a better informed decision to act or to not act, and then get back to enjoying living life unafraid.
These are all first-time mums. No wonder they still get caught up in the ‘everyone is judging, I will judge’ hysteria.
I only have one child, but I have close friends with multiples, and they all say that their completely reliable trick for child 1 never worked for child 2. I guess the judging falls off when you realise that everyone does it differently because everyone’s child is different.
It’s a pity the line at the end excluded the dads, but at least they showed some.
Be nice, folks. This site is about knowing what works for your kids and your life, and that includes the baby stuff.
H
How on Earth did this discussion turn into the exact thing the video is satirizing to begin with?
The point is, the arguing doesn’t help the babies! If the caricatures in the video can learn that it’s petty when compared to real danger, why can’t we?
So, do the lactivists get an alert every time a site they’ve never even visited posts anything even remotely formula-related, so they go to said site and lecture the idiots on the errors of their ways?
I hate this term but it seems to apply in this case…get a life. And leave others to live theirs.
Thank you Lenore for proving that the mommy wars do exist … and I mean in your comments section. Too bad the message in the video seems to go right over their heads.
I would like to see a link to a reputable, peer-reviewed, and possibly replicated study proving a link between bras and breast cancer. Thanks.
Did anyone else notice the squirt of milk go across the shot? Too funny!
I “thought” about putting it up in one group that I am in, but the fact that Simlac made it would (like here) overshadow the message that “WE NEED TO STOP JUDGING EACH OTHER!” We are ALL doing the best we can.
Judging I have seen on that page:
Photos taken in parking lots of babies improperly strapped in seat. (Posted, but they didn’t actually TALK to the parent about the issues.)
Woman who had crying infant in baby seat in store and a toddler. “OMG, why won’t she pick up that baby!” My response “OMG, WHY didn’t YOU offer to help by holding baby or dealing with toddler?”
Most recently, BLAMING a mother whose 5 year old died from the flu when the mother of the child told media that she wanted everyone to get the flu shot to avoid what happened to her. Women were saying she was a bad mother for not getting her child to the hospital sooner. (From experience with Swine Flu, conditions can change very fast.)
Wearing your child, but not with the right carrier. Using cloth diapers, but not the right cloth diapers. Using formula….at all. (At 4 month, if we went hiking my daughter refused to breast feed – she wanted to look around. A bottle was the answer. With DRY formula because that would stay safe until mixed.) Getting vaccinated, not using homeopathic medicines or essential oils. Eating anything that is not organic. Occasionally, letting your kid go to the park alone.
I stay with the group because they do have some good gardeners there that are helpful for me. And sometimes I can be the voice of reason and at least get in another viewpoint. But this video did totally remind me of them.
The women who are totally against formula do have an alternative. You are supposed to use GOAT milk, instead of formula if you can’t breast feed, according to the people I know. The fact that it comes in a BPA lined can if you don’t have goat seems to escape them….and, substituting one mammal with another who despite having kids instead of calves, seems to possibly leave some of the same holes in the feeding that formula/milk would. (For the record, I eat food from lined cans.)
@CrazyCatLady: It’s closer in nutritional profile to human milk than, for example, cow’s milk, but it still needs some adjustment.
I’m very glad that I was able to BF all three because night feedings were so much simpler–although I should note that the baby of the moment slept in a sidecar on a level with the mattress, so all I had to do was roll over and sometimes neither of us even woke up! Also, there are hellish allergies on the dad’s side of the family; after one of his brothers almost died on one type of formula after another and had to be raised on bananas and rice(?!), I didn’t want to find out about allergies the hard way myself.
But I’m also glad that formula is available for people like my friend, who would die without regular doses of a medication that dries up breastmilk as a side effect.
I just wish that her medical team had bothered to tell her that before she took her first baby in for inability to settle, dehydration, and inexplicable weight loss. And that they hadn’t been so cavalier about it–“Oh, doop de doo, whateverrrrr, no biggie.” Yes, biggie. And I wish that the conventional wisdom still didn’t push formula (measure, mix, clean, clean, clean, and, oh yes, pay, pay, pay) as the “convenient” alternative for absolutely everyone while failing to provide basic assistance for mothers who had never even seen anybody breastfeed before. There is so much ignorance! I asked a young doctor about tandem nursing of a newborn and a toddler, because I had lent my LLL book out and couldn’t remember the recommendations, and his eyes about bugged out of his head! He had never heard of such a thing! Gee, thanks, Nestle.
At least it’s a step up from the days when advertising had convinced doctors(!) that a breastfeeding mother was some kind of tick-picking primitive and spoiling her baby besides.
@hineata You shouldn’t dismiss what you aren’t informed about. There is general agreement among sex therapists that body shame contributes to female sexual dysfunction, and the physiologial basis of clitoral erectile dysfunction (search those keywords on the web), i.e. neural pruning as a result of disuse during development, are in no dispute.
U mm. ..so what? Am sorry I encouraged you in any way. Please forget I directed another comment to you. There are plenty of websites that cater to your particular issues. I politely suggest you find a more appropriate site to direct your message.
Come on “sexhysteria”, the bra thing. Back up your assertions; let’s have it.
@Buffy “I would like to see a link to a reputable, peer-reviewed, and possibly replicated study proving a link between bras and breast cancer. Thanks.”
There is a correlation, but it’s because women with large breasts tend to wear bras more than the 32AAs of the world.
Large breasts = more tissue
More tissue = higher risk that some cell is going to mutate into cancer
And by coincidence, those women probably have been wearing bras for more years and for more hours a day than women with small breasts. It’s a comfort thing, there is no causal relationship.
That does not explain how wearing a bra causes the cancer. The tissue is there whether supported by a bra or not.
sorry, but anyone NOT that runaway stroller baby’s mother would be calling CPS – just sayin’- I lived in mommy-contest suburban hell for 18 years- they called me “erin brokovitch”. I was reported to CPS for giving my kid Gardisil shots at age 14 lol. Im so glad it is over.
I loved it. Thank you for posting, and please don’t be cowed into taking it down.
I thought it was cute but I guess I am too bitter to really enjoy it. I know in reality instead of helping that mother catch her kid they would do what has happened to me before and just stand there staring and judging you for making a mistake and then running their mouths about you to everyone later for being a bad parent. That is my reality.
I have too many parents bad mouthing me to think they really just want my kids to be taken care of and safe. Nope. I have had people threaten to give my peanut allergic son peanut butter to kill him or toughen him up or prove we are faking it. I have had people tell me I should just homeschool my autistic son and not let him leave the house or try to get him to be okay at regular school like everyone else.
So yeah, sorry but my bitterness is too high to believe most people give a shit about my kids or me.
Dolly, no one was trying to kill your son. And if they were, you need to call the cops and have them prosecuted for premeditated attempted murder. I’m guessing you didn’t do that.
Just because people share information doesn’t necessarily mean they are judging you or telling you what to do.
While it is a fact that is suppressed by the formula industry that breast milk is nearly always safer and healthier for babies, there are cases where this is not true and then there are many other factors that go into the choice that could be just as important for the total health of the family (including psychologically.) So even if I wanted to narrowly “judge” someone for their choice, I couldn’t.
I feel that adds like these want to promote the idea that info sharing means judgement and war so that only they can share information.
I think a better idea is to see people’s information as leads for further study (or not) and possible things to weigh into your decisions without hearing it as a guilt-trip or an attack on you.
The only judgement connected to my info sharing (that human milk is superior to formula and that cow-formula carries extra risks) is at the companies who don’t want you to know these things as you make your decision for your family. If you think I am “at war” with you or any other mom for feeding formula, you are making an incorrect assumption.
There is judging and war that goes on- people do call the cops on people they feel are not making the choices they thin they should, but please don’t compare information sharing to such actions. (Although Similac would love you to do so…)
notice I said “threaten”. Threatening to do that anonymously on the internet, is not really something worth calling the cops about. But if you go to any comment section on any article about food allergies, you will find multiple comments from people saying we should just let food allergy kids die or that they are going to smear pb on the door handles at their local school etc. I have read it over and over and over again. So yeah, it made me bitter enough that I don’t trust or believe all parents care about my kid. Not when they go out of their way to type something like that.
I lost interest when they started demonizing the breastfeeding moms. I knew then it was from a formula company – I didn’t realize they were not suppose to advertise.
I never covered up while breastfeeding. The baby’s head covered my boob anyway, and his/her mouth was of course over the nipple. I breastfed while in lines, while grocery shopping, while waiting at the doctor’s office etc. and only a few pushy people who got way too close while asking if they could see the baby realized I was breastfeeding at the time (at which point they either showed their support or backed away very quickly, lol).