‘Nestlé Family Blogger Event’ Fallout

“Aware of its poor image in many parenting circles, Nestlé did something last week that more and more companies are doing. It went to the blogosphere to elicit a more positive buzz”, writes Linda Lowen in her blog post of 5 October 2009. “The company invited 20 top mommybloggers (and a couple of dads too) to go to California on an two-day all-expense-paid trip to meet with its U.S. CEO, a Nestlé chef and a fitness expert”.

“Hoping to convince 20 mommybloggers to say nice things about their products, [Nestlé] have inadvertently opened the floodgates for hundreds of bloggers and thousands of readers (unfamiliar with Nestlé’s formula sales in Third World nations or the Boycott Nestlé movement) to learn more about the company’s less savory practices”, Lowen concludes.

In the introduction of her blog post, Lowen dwells on the dangers of promoting infant formula in developing countries. “Mix it with unsafe drinking water in bottles that aren’t sterilized and babies can get sick and even die. These are very real problems in underdeveloped countries where contaminated water and little understanding of the need to sterilize (or lack of equipment to do so) often lead to diarrhea in infants, which in turn can cause death. Even babies fed formula mixed with clean water are at risk of malnourishment when well-meaning mothers who can’t afford enough formula thin it with additional water to extend it. For these and other reasons, it’s estimated that over a million babies die each year because they are bottle-fed instead of breastfed”.

Nestlé is also trying to create goodwill in the water sector through its sponsorship of the Stockholm International Water Week and a special focus on water in its Creating Shared Value programme. The new Nestlé Prize in Creating Shared Value is offering US$ 470,000 for an innovative water project.