The Mark, "Got Breastmilk?"

photo by Jesse McClain

One would think that the ownership of the trademark (mark). "Got Breastmilk?" by the California Milk Processor Board (which is the PR group that represents such companies as Dean Foods and Nestle) would make blogging news or at the very least should make news with breastfeeding advocates. Silence.....is anyone out there? Only in the PR world, would such news rocket through the blogging world, going viral, going viral, gone viral. But hm, reality doesn't go viral....silence. This is not what the "company" wants to project: a PR campaign creates retaliation. Nope. No talk, more silence. Reality on the internet, it doesn't exist, its just a PR game and we don't even know the players. Maybe we should call it "mothers of invention." Oops can't say that...it might be a trademark. I started reading about the California Milk Processor Board and how much money they collect from California Dairy Farmers (a few millions) and somehow they seem to have quite a bit of money to play with for "advertising." I am hoping to order a T-shirt from them that has all those cute little cows and says "got breastmilk?" Maybe the T-shirt with the California Real Dairy seal of approval (Real Dairy--Nestle but the seal of approval is a PR campaign for the California Milk Processors Board) and "Got Breastmilk?" How about the Nestle patent called "Osteoprotegerin in milk." (EP1757619 and US patent application # 20050288219) Inventors are Karine Vidal et al. The abstract in part states, "The present invention pertains to osteoprotegerin obtainable from a milk source, in particular human and bovine milk." This component will be used for bone remodeling and to boost immunity. Hm...tell me again why premmies don't get enough calcium from human milk? Meanwhile Nestle will patent a component of human milk that builds/remodels bones. Oh, I forgot advocates for breastfeeding don't want to hear about this nor do they have the need to question how Nestle so easily got human milk and are able to patent off it. La-dee-dum....questioning is bad...don't ask questions. If we want companies to be transparent, don't ask questions. Yes, ethics is a game, throw the dice and which player wins? I am afraid moms and dads are the real losers in this game of chance.

Copyright 2008 Valerie W. McClain