Dave Gualtieri
International Business 200
January 21, 2007
Eydis Olsen
Case Study Report: Nestle: The Infant Formula Controversy Beginning in the early 1970’s Nestle Alimentana of Vevey, Switzerland, one of the world’s largest food-processing companies was at war with the world. Nestle was under fire from the Pan American Health Organization for allegations of the mass amount of deaths amongst babies of in many of the third world. As a result, Nestle began to suffer from an international boycott of its products. Nestle was severely under attack by the world, many of the charges brought against Nestle were against the issues of their advertising and marketing campaigns. The charges raised against Nestle dealt with the alleged discouragement of breast feeding, particularly among third world mothers. The allegations claimed that the advertising and marketing strategies of Nestle are responsible for mothers of third world countries misuse of their products, which directly resulted in infant malnutrition and death. The major problem facing Nestle was that many people believed they were intentionally misrepresenting their products to the public. This however was very untrue. Nestle has never advocated bottle feeding instead of breast feeding. Also, it clearly states on Nestles products that breast feeding is the most effective way to properly deliver the essential nutrients and vitamins to growing babies. As evidence for their support of breast feeding, Nestle took a page from their oldest educational booklets on “Infant Feeding and Hygiene” dating from 1913 which encourages breast feeding (Murray). Nestles major problem was how they were going to show the world that they were in the support of third world mothers and organizations rather then against them. Nestles solution was to go along with the resulting World Health Organization (WHO) code.