Paradoxical regulation and child malnutrition: The ban on the advertising of infant formula

Óscar Súmar, Universidad del Pacífico
Julio Avellaneda, INDECOPI

Abstract

Advertising has, at least, tree beneficial effects, which are related with each other: is a source of information that facilitates the decision making process of buyers; it improves the relation between price and quality; and it’s a mean of competition. However, advertising has been the subject of the critic of scholars and the distrust of the general public. Moreover, this circumstance, plus the pressure of groups of interest, has lead to the imposition of bans against it.

In this case, we will focus on the ban on the advertising of infant formula. This ban is supposed to increase breastfeeding by incrementing the price −and, thus, reducing the consumption− of its substitute. Even if that makes sense as a nutrition policy, we argue that it has the opposite effect, at least when it’s applied in a poor country like Peru. This is so because substitutes are the only alternative for some people who, for example, works or has diseases; then, if we prohibit the advertising of the “second best” alternative, i. e. formulas, people has to resort to worst alternatives like whole milk, tea or even water; incrementing, in that way, malnutrition.