ABSTRACT

Up to this point the debate was confined to the health care professions. In March 1974, the debate became global through Mike Muller’s pamphlet The Baby Killer. This was a broad restatement of an article which had appeared in the August 1973 edition of the New Internationalist. That article, by R. Hendricks and David Morely, focused on cases where bottlefeeding was not appropriate, accepting that there were cases where it was. Muller’s article focused less on appropriate uses and a subsequent translation by a German group (ADW, Third World Working Group) put aside any qualifications and gave it the title Nestlé Kills Babies. Nestlé’s response was to sue ADW, leading to a two-year court case, which they won. Nestlé, however, lost the publicity battle. They had given the impression of a global giant trying to stamp out the protests of ordinary decent people.