Parents First, Profits Last: A Joint Statement to End Bobbie’s Predatory Campaign

Public health advocates condemn Bobbie formula’s Cardi B campaign, as it collapses the line between advocacy and advertising, violates WHO Code, and targets parents at their most vulnerable. Join the fight for accountability and add your name to #MomsvMeta letter. 

A new campaign from formula company Bobbie, featuring Cardi B, has reignited deep concerns about the exploitation of parents through predatory marketing, particularly during one of the most vulnerable times of their lives: the postpartum period. 

By framing advertising as “advocacy” for paid leave and maternal health, Bobbie blurs lines and positions themselves as a champion for families while using their struggles as a sales strategy. Their campaign looks like a stand for public health while in reality it’s corporate marketing designed to feed on vulnerability, build brand trust, and drive sales. It fails to deliver what families actually need: unbiased, evidence-based information and systemic change.

Such tactics directly violate the World Health Organization’s International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes, a standard established to protect families from commercial influence that distorts informed decision-making. The Code is pro-parent, not anti-formula. It exists so that every family can make infant feeding decisions grounded in truth,  free from the influence of manipulative marketing tactics.

Campaigns like these distract from the real solutions parents need in order to meet their infant-feeding goals: comprehensive paid family and medical leave, workplace protections that uphold lactation rights, equitable and culturally tailored lactation support, and transparent, evidence-based communication grounded in science not profit.

We stand united to demand integrity, accountability, and adherence to the WHO Code to protect parents from predatory marketing and manufactured advocacy. Families deserve to make evidence-based, informed decisions free from emotional manipulation and disguised advertising. They deserve honesty, protection and policies that put their health before any brand’s bottom line.

We call on Bobbie to immediately end predatory marketing that profits from the vulnerability of the postpartum period. We also urge public health organizations, advocates, and allies to join us in supporting the #MomsvMeta campaign by signing on to their letter that urges Meta’s oversight board to end monetization of misleading infant-feeding ads across social platforms.