ShortHand: Nestlé & the 'Baby Killer' Scandal

Summary

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RedHanded – ShortHand: Nestlé & the ‘Baby Killer’ Scandal

Date: May 22, 2026
Hosts: Suruthi and Hannah (RedHanded)

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Episode Overview

In this ShortHand episode, Suruthi and Hannah take listeners into one of the most notorious corporate scandals in history: Nestlé’s aggressive and deadly promotion of infant formula in low and middle income countries. They trace Nestlé’s evolution from a well-meaning 19th-century startup to a corporate giant accused of contributing to the deaths of over ten million babies due to unethical marketing and disregard for vulnerable populations. With their trademark dark humor and passionate outrage, the hosts expose how profit-driven motives can wreak havoc on public health.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

Nestlé’s Reputation vs. Reality

• PR Image vs. Actual Practices
  • Nestlé is frequently lauded for eco-friendly initiatives and corporate social responsibility.
    • “Nestle proudly boasts about their mission to halve their carbon emissions by 2030... which is quite literally impossible.” (Host, 01:49)
  • The hosts call out extensive “greenwashing” in Nestlé’s PR, meaning the company promotes false environmental credentials.
    • “So much greenwashing. I know people that work in PR and they're like, literally every single company that comes to us is like, can you just greenwash?” (Co-host, 02:16)
• Omitted Scandals
  • Serious accusations against Nestlé:
    • Child slave labor
    • Claiming clean water isn’t a human right
    • Mass exploitation of the poor
  • A study estimated over 10 million infant deaths between 1960–2015 linked to Nestlé’s formula. (Co-host, 02:46)

Origins: The Invention of Baby Formula

• Henri Nestlé’s Early Ideas
  • Entrepreneur with good intentions, looking to solve high infant mortality due to the lack of breast milk and fresh cow’s milk (Host, 04:15)
  • Created the world’s first powdered baby formula: “Henri Nestle Milk Flour.” (Host, 05:28)
• Global Expansion and Ruthlessness Post-Henri
  • After Henri sold the company in 1875, new management aggressively sought profits, setting up the path for future scandals. (Co-host, 08:05)

Marketing Tactics and Medical Endorsements

• Victorian/20th-century Beliefs and Medicalization
  • The rise in female employment and cultural shifts away from breastfeeding contributed to increased formula use (Host, 08:38)
  • Nestlé exploited trust in medical professionals, distributing brochures and free samples to doctors and leveraging their endorsements for advertising. (Host, 11:07)
• Deceptive Advertising
  • Claims Nestlé’s formula was scientifically superior to breast milk—endorsed by paid professors. Only positive research cited. (Host, 10:41)
  • “This case is almost a blow by blow parallel with the Sackler case.” (Co-host, 11:01)
• Ignoring Dissent
  • Despite warnings from nutrition experts, commercial interests, and doctor endorsements drowned out sound scientific advice in public discussion. (Co-host, 11:49)

Expansion into the Developing World

• Post-WWII Opportunity Exploitation
  • Nestlé marketed formula as a solution for malnutrition like kwashiorkor in Africa and Latin America, ignoring the reality that formula use without clean water and sterilized equipment causes more harm. (Host, 16:57)
  • Clinical trials were often self-funded and results widely publicized to create demand. (Co-host, 18:52)
• Aggressive and Deceptive Sales in Poor Communities
  • Sales reps dressed as nurses, obtained private information from hospital records, and gave free samples until mothers lost the ability to breastfeed.
    • “They'd even sneakily copy the names and addresses of new mothers... When they weren't doing this, they'd go as far as wandering residential streets and spotting which homes had baby clothes drying out front.” (Co-host, 20:27)
  • Instructions were in English or French, not local languages; mothers diluted expensive formula or used unsafe alternatives once free samples ran out. (Host, 21:26)

Outcry, Lawsuits, Boycott, and the Present Day

• The ‘Baby Killer’ Pamphlet (1974)
  • British nonprofit War on Want exposed Nestlé's practices in “The Baby Killer” pamphlet, later translated into German as “Nestlé Kills Babies.” (Host, 19:42; Co-host, 22:30)
• Legal and Public Relations Backlash
  • Nestlé sued for defamation, but the lawsuit backfired, amplifying the scandal (Barbra Streisand effect). (Co-host, 22:30)
  • Judge ruled in Nestlé’s favor legally, but they were ordered to change their publicity methods and fined symbolically. Time described it as a "moral victory" for campaigners. (Co-host, 22:30)
• Boycotts and Global Advocacy
  • International boycott launched in 1977, linked humanitarian activism directly to corporate responsibility. (Host, 23:29)
  • 1978: Executives called before the US Senate; Nestlé blamed others—local conditions and mothers—rather than their practices. (Co-host, 24:02)
  • 1981: WHO and UNICEF created the International Code of Marketing of Breast Milk Substitutes. Nestlé agreed to the code in 1984 after public pressure. (Host, 24:40)
  • Ongoing: Despite agreeing to reforms, Nestlé continues to be caught breaking the code, and the boycott persists. (Host, 24:40)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

Exposing Greenwashing

• “Nestle proudly boasts about their mission to halve their carbon emissions by 2030 and how they're committed to a 100% anti deforestation supply chain, which is quite literally impossible.” (Host, 01:49)
• “So much greenwashing. I know people that work in PR and they're like, literally every single company that comes to us is like, can you just greenwash? Just greenwash? Fuck off.” (Co-host, 02:16)

The True Scale of the Disaster

• “...estimated that 10,870,000 infants between 1960 and 2015 died as a direct result of Nestle baby formula used by mothers in low and middle income countries without clean water sources.” (Co-host, 02:46)
• “This case is almost a blow by blow parallel with the Sackler case.” (Co-host, 11:01)

On Aggressive Sales Tactics

• “They'd even sneakily copy the names and addresses of new mothers who had just given birth from hospital records and visit them at home... These saleswomen would then sit and convince these mothers... that Nestle's baby formula was better for their baby than their own breast milk was, and that not using it could have fatal consequences, when, of course, the opposite was true.” (Co-host, 20:27)

On Boycotts and Responsibility

• “This boycott is somewhat unique as it wasn't about labour abuses or creating political pressure against a government. The Nestle boycott linked human rights regulations and humanitarian activism with corporate responsibility.” (Host, 23:29)
• “But in the years since Nestle signed that agreement, they have been found to be in breach of it numerous times all over the world. And the Nestle Baby Killer boycott continues to this day.” (Host, 24:40)

Dark Humor & Outrage

• “No kits, no Smarties, no Milky Bars, no Lion Bars, no arrows.” (Host, 25:52)
• “So don't have a break unless you're nest. A break for murdering babies, you sick fucks.” (Co-host, 25:43)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

| Timestamp | Segment | |-----------|---------| | 01:12 | Episode begins, tone set: “where we're gonna depress you”| | 02:46 | Infants deaths linked to Nestlé formula revealed | | 04:42 | Powdered baby formula invented and worldwide reach | | 08:38 | Social and scientific backdrop of formula marketing | | 11:49 | Medical community vs. formula industry | | 16:07 | UN focus on infant nutrition and kwashiorkor | | 20:27 | Sales reps’ nurses tactic and exploitation | | 22:30 | ‘The Baby Killer’ pamphlet, lawsuit, public scandal | | 23:29 | Global boycott, Senate hearings, and creation of marketing code | | 24:40 | Ongoing violations and continuing boycott | | 25:40 | Sign-off with calls to boycott Nestlé products throughout the range |

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Tone and Takeaway

Suruthi and Hannah deliver this episode in their signature style: a blend of grave indignation at corporate malfeasance, dark humor, exasperated asides, and a commitment to exposing injustice. They challenge listeners to remain skeptical of corporate PR, understand the deadly repercussions of reckless marketing, and consider the lasting impacts of consumer choices.

The refrain—“don’t have a break unless you’re Nestlé: a break for murdering babies, you sick fucks”—underscores just how deeply this scandal should disturb the conscience, and why the boycott remains relevant.

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For More

If you want the full picture with the hosts’ distinctive commentary and more context about the dangers of unchecked corporate power, listen to the full episode of RedHanded.

Transcript

[Host]

Neighbor game. Oo.

[Liberty Mutual Spokesperson]

And Doug, there's nowhere I wouldn't go to help someone customize and save on car insurance with Liberty Mutual. Even if it means sitting front row at a comedy show.

[Host]

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[Liberty Mutual Spokesperson]

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[Host]

Yeah, the bird looks out of your league.

[Liberty Mutual Spokesperson]

Anyways, get a [e-mail] or with your local agent.

[Host]

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[Co-host]

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[Host]

Hello, Allo, and welcome to Shorthand, where we're gonna depress you.

[Co-host]

I know, it is depressing. This is very depressing. But keep listening, please.

[Host]

Yeah, and I have to say that this has reinspired my boycott. I boycotted Nestle for years.

[Co-host]

I mean, honestly, I think.

[Host]

And then I accidentally drank a Nesquik and I was like, I hate myself.

[Co-host]

I know. And it's not even that tasty. That's the real shame. But it is sad because it's one of those stories that starts off with good intentions and and then is just exploited to fuck.

[Host]

In 2013, Forbes ranked Nestle, the biggest food and beverage company in the world, as one of the 10 most reputable companies on the planet. And if you have a look at their website, you can maybe see why. Nestle proudly boasts about their mission to halve their carbon emissions by 2030 and how they're committed to a 100% anti deforestation supply chain, which is quite literally impossible.

[Co-host]

So, so much greenwashing. So much greenwashing. I know people that work in PR and they're like, literally every single company that comes to us is like, can you just greenwash? Just greenwash? Fuck off.

[Host]

Yeah. Can we be carbon neutral? And they're like, you can. Doesn't mean anything anyway. What Nestle's website doesn't mention is that Nestle have been accused of child slave labour, claiming clean water isn't a human right and mass exploitation of the poor.

[Co-host]

And their carefully crafted PR greenwashing website also of course ignores the fact that in 2018, the National Bureau of Economic Research conducted a study which estimated that 10,870,000 infants between 1960 and 2015 died as a direct result of Nestle baby formula used by mothers in low and middle income countries without clean water sources. That is more than the population of London. And these infant Deaths peaked at 212,000 in 1981 alone. The Nestle baby killing scandal is one of the most heinous corporate crime cases you're ever likely to encounter. This is the shorthand.

[Host]

I think it's one of those stories that everyone kind of knows, but because it is so awful, they don't think it's true.

[Co-host]

Yeah, and I think it's also like corporate crime case. I know that's what it is, but that feels like the not right word. The biggest cases of mass murder.

[Host]

The Nestle story begins in Frankfurt, Germany, where Henri Nestle was born on 10 August 1814. He was the 11th of 14 children and was expected to join the family business as a glaze.

[Co-host]

As a what? Glazier.

[Host]

As a glazier. What's a glazier?

[Co-host]

Oh, it's like people who make and fit glass. So if your window breaks, call a glazier the glass man.

[Host]

But Henri was not interested in being a glass man. He had other ambitions. He studied chemistry and at the age of 20 began a four year apprenticeship at a pharmacy in Frankfurt before leaving Germany for Switzerland in the late 1830s. By 1840, Henri's entrepreneurial spirit led him to try his hand at making everything from nut oils, liquors, rum, vinegar, absinthe, lemonade and sparkling mineral water. But none of his products seemed to

[Co-host]

take off until he spotted a gap in the market. At that time, Western Europe was experiencing high levels of infant mortality, not just among the poor, but also in high society. There was not only the ongoing European food crisis because fresh cow's milk was in short supply in many large towns. But breastfeeding had also fallen out of fashion, especially among the upper classes. There was an urgent need for an alternative to breast milk, and in 1867, Henri found the solution. By combining cow's milk with grain and sugar and removing the acid and starch in the wheat flour, which is difficult for babies to digest, Henri created the world's first powdered baby formula, marketing it

[Host]

as Henri Nestle Milk Flour, which sounds disgusting. It quickly hit the shelves all over Europe and by the 1870s, it was being sold in the US as Nestle's infant food. Soon after, in 1857, when Henri and his chocolatier friend Daniel Peter joined forces to create the world's first chocolate milk, Nestle hit the big time. And 140 years later, Nestle would become the largest food and beverage company in the whole wide world. And it would be worth almost 90 billion.

[Liberty Mutual Spokesperson]

And Doug, there's nowhere I wouldn't go to help someone customize and save on car insurance with Liberty Mutual. Even if it means sitting front row at a comedy show.

[Host]

Hey everyone, check out this guy and his bird. What is this your first date?

[Liberty Mutual Spokesperson]

Oh, no. We help people customize and save on car insurance with Liberty Mutual. Together we're married. Me to a human, him to a bird.

[Host]

Yeah, the bird looks out of your league.

[Liberty Mutual Spokesperson]

Anyways, get a [e-mail] or with your local agent.

[Host]

Liberty, Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Hate cleaning.

[Co-host]

Hate scrubbing. Hate dishwashing. Bro, we got you millions of videos about smart cleaning hacks will make your chores feel feel like a breeze. Download TikTok and check it out.

[Liberty Mutual Spokesperson]

And Doug, there's nowhere I wouldn't go to help someone customize and save on car insurance with Liberty Mutual. Even if it means sitting front row at a comedy show.

[Host]

Hey everyone, check out this guy and his bird. What is this your first date?

[Liberty Mutual Spokesperson]

Oh, no. We help people customize and save on car insurance with Liberty Mutual. Together we're married. Me to a human, him to a bird.

[Host]

Yeah, the bird looks out of your league.

[Liberty Mutual Spokesperson]

Anyways, get a [e-mail] or with your local agent.

[Host]

Liberty, Liberty. Liberty. Liberty.

[Advertiser]

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[Host]

1875 marked the beginning of a major success story for Nestle. But it also marked the beginning of a horror story for much of the world.

[Co-host]

Because that same year, Henri sold his company and retired to spend more time with his family. While the new owners of Nestle focused on taking the Nestle brand global, growing their product range to include everything from baby formula to chocolate and instant coffee to keep the troops awake during wartime. The new heads of the company were a lot more ruthless in their approach to business than Henri Nestle had ever been, and they did not share the same good intentions. And the company's unethical marketing practices would go on to have devastating consequences. The world over.

[Host]

The popularity of alternatives to breast milk rose massively during the Industrial Revolution, due, among many things, to maternal deaths, labour demands and cultural norms. The rise in female employment saw many women abandoning breastfeeding for artificial alternatives, which usually involved mixtures of cereals, sugar and cow milk. And wet nursing was falling out of favour too, because it was seen as unhygienic and immoral, which it is. Just as the rise in popularity of artificial methods was taking place, the science of nutrition was developing rapidly. By the turn of the 20th century, public health authorities in the west proclaimed that the high infant mortality rates were due mainly to contaminated milk supplies. In England, milk was identified as a vector of tuberculosis and typhoid outbreaks.

[Co-host]

One of Nestle's primary selling points of Henri Nestle's milk flourish was their use of pure Alpine Swiss milk. And it's apparently unquestionable hygiene.

[Host]

It makes no difference if you stick it in a glass bottle that can't be cleaned.

[Co-host]

Yes, as we found out in our episode on why all the Victorians died, it actually makes it much worse. So in 1904, a news report about Nestle claimed the following. And this is a quote. I read it and reread it and I was like, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but this is what was written, so I'm just going to read it to you. Although in England breastfeeding is the rule, in addition to breast milk, in 80% of cases comes Swiss milk, recommended by the highest and most competent medical authorities as infinitely superior to fresh milk, even the most pure. And I think there's something here in the deliberate use of language in Neste's campaign, proclaiming that artificial baby's milk is aligned with the latest scientific nutritional information. And it was very effective. And in 1872, Nesse produced their own brochure. Written in the very academic tone of a scientific article, this brochure was described by corporate historian Albert Piffner as disguised publicity.

[Host]

The brochure claimed that irrational food was the main cause of high mortality in infants and that Nestle's baby's milk addressed all of the physiological needs of an infant. The brochure went on to quote a number of prominent professors who had no doubt been paid to approve Nestle's claims. Or maybe just like fucking the Sacklers just didn't exist.

[Co-host]

Oh, yes, absolutely. This case is almost a blow by blow parallel with the Sackler case.

[Host]

These claims were then printed all over newspaper advertisements, their product packaging and even in medical journals. From the beginning, Nestle's marketing strategy relied heavily on endorsements and testimonials from the medical world. Nestle would instruct their salesmen to go directly to doctors and pharmacists, giving them brochures and free samples. Many of the physicians would then prescribe Nestle products to their patients and report what they observed. And of course, only the positive reports would then be published in medical journals or in adverts or in new brochures given to other physicians. This strategy worked wonders, and Nestle's market share grew enormously.

[Co-host]

But that doesn't mean the medical industry as a whole was buying into this. There was a huge dispute within the community about what constituted the best substitute for breast milk in terms of artificial feeding. And in the US Nutrition experts were among the first to voice their concerns. Their guidelines made it clear that individually tailored infant formulas prepared in labs were far preferable to these often secretive industrial formulas like Nestle's. They stated in no uncertain terms that these formulas rarely if ever met the nutritional needs of infants. And although their disapproval was recorded at medical industry conventions and in textbooks, the word didn't really spread to the general public. And that's obviously because Nestle have money to spend on convincing the public. These doctors and scientists are just like, we're not going to start a campaign to rival Nestle. They're just making their points heard. And the reason that Nestle was able to sort of continue its game and it didn't spread to the public was also because, in large part, physicians sadly ignored the findings of these experts. They preferred to use their own findings, usually positive empirical evidences with ready to use formula like Nestle's.

[Host]

In the first decades of the 1900s, skimmed condensed milk was touted as baby food.

[Co-host]

That is unbelievable. It's what used to make fudge.

[Host]

Oh, I know.

[Co-host]

If you just boil condensed milk long enough, you just have fudge. Mm.

[Host]

Yep, yep, yep.

[Co-host]

I mean, it's delicious, but f. Just f Ing normo.

[Host]

Babies just rolling around. I know. Anyway, if you have been lucky enough to avoid condensed milk your entire life, it's essentially milk that has been treated until about 60% of the water content has evaporated and then sugar is put in its place and babies love it. Still now, but after an epidemic of rickets, which is caused by a lack of fat soluble vitamin D, doctors observed that there was a link between rickets in infants and an exclusive diet of skimmed condensed milk. I saw on TikTok this morning the factual Encyclopaedia Britannica. Up until the like 1920s I'd say maybe a bit later. All applicants to Harvard and Yale had to submit a naked photograph of themself to check for scoliosis and rickets. And they are in the Smithsonian to this day.

[Co-host]

A childhood picture?

[Host]

No, grown up.

[Co-host]

Oh, right. Okay, fine. I don't know why I put that in my head. Okay, fuck it. Hell, that's wild.

[Host]

But despite the rickets, many manufacturers, including Nestle themselves, continue to brand their condensed skimmed milk as infant food. How anyone has any teeth in the 1900s is beyond me.

[Co-host]

They're all dead by like 40, though that's true.

[Host]

And resulting health issues were particularly prevalent amongst poorer communities, as they usually are, because condensed milk was much cheaper than baby formulas.

[Co-host]

This marked the beginning of a war between the medical industry and formula companies. Around the 1920s, nutrition scientists and public health authorities began challenging the scientific claims made by companies like Nestle. Which is why Nestle went to huge lengths to establish a relationship with the medical authorities in its home country. Where that beautiful, delicious, pure, pure, pure alpine Swiss milk comes from. Switzerland. And they did this by becoming very involved in Swiss health philanthropy and sponsoring clinical trials of its own infant feeding products. By the 40s, Nesse had stuffed so many pockets in the Swiss medical industry that it was lauded as a champion of child health and humanitarian causes.

[Host]

One Swiss journalist even wrote. Among the innumerable industries that have emerged worldwide, there is one whose entire activity is marked by the following. Serve the child. Therefore, wherever the food situation of the child becomes worrying, Nestle stands with its products alongside the Red Cross in its magnificent crusade for destitute childhood. Nestle was at this point one of the biggest companies in the infant food industry in Europe. But it had its eyes set on broader horizons, namely the developing world.

[Co-host]

Following the end of World War II, infant nutrition became a primary focus for a number of new UN organizations such as the Food and Agricultural Organization, the World Health Organization and the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund. The main issue these organizations were faced with in the 50s was, was the rise of kwashioko, a condition caused by protein malnutrition that leads to the characteristic swollen belly. It was first described in the 1930s by Jamaican born Oxford educated physician, Dr. Cecily Williams. Dr. Williams was one of the first to warn of the disastrous effects of bottle feeding, a practice that had arrived in the developing world by way of colonization. In the early 1900s, Williams had investigated

[Host]

the mortality of bottle fed infants in Malaya and found that early deaths were far more common in artificially fed babies than in those who were breastfed. As early as 1939, Dr. Williams gave numerous talks that the misguided propaganda on infant feeding was to blame for high rates of infant mortality. However, sadly, Dr. Williams critical view of bottle feeding didn't spread beyond a small ground of experts until it was too late. Kwashioko was rampant in Africa and in Latin America in the 50s, and Nestle saw this as an opportunity. Soon enough, Nestle's medical delegates flocked to Africa to promote their products to colonial doctors as a treatment for malnutrition. And just like they had done in Switzerland, Nestle funded and ran its own clinical trials in Africa.

[Liberty Mutual Spokesperson]

And Doug, there's nowhere I wouldn't go to help someone customize and save on car insurance with Liberty Mutual. Even if it means sitting front row at a comedy show.

[Host]

Hey everyone, check out this guy and his bird. What is this, your first date?

[Liberty Mutual Spokesperson]

Oh no. We help people customize and save on car insurance with Liberty Mutual together. We're married. Me to a human, him to a bird.

[Host]

Yeah, the bird looks out of your league.

[Liberty Mutual Spokesperson]

Anyways, get a [e-mail] or with your local agent.

[Host]

Liberty Liberty. Liberty, Liberty.

[Advertiser]

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[Co-host]

In 1956, one of Nestle's medical representatives went on a six week tour of the French African colonies. This representative met with 112 doctors, 60 hospital services, 50 pharmacists and set up 40 clinical experiments. Similar tours were set up in South Africa, British East Africa and the Belgian colonies. The results of the clinical trials on malnourished children were reported to be an astounding success. One report said the under its action appetite reappeared, oedema is melted. In five to six days, the biological syndrome improves, hepatic lesions regress and mortality decreases from 80% to 25%. Basically, Nestle's products were the solution to Africa's crisis. Or at least that's what they claimed.

[Host]

These marvellous results were then shared with the colonial medical community at inter African nutrition conferences. There were also of course, printed in medical journals and brochures. As a result, by the 1960s, Nestle saw a huge surge in sales of their products in the African continent. Then, in March 1974, the British nonprofit War on Want published a damning pamphlet entitled the Baby Killer. It is nice when something isn't our fault for once. The pamphlet was a powerful attack on the baby formula industry and revealed the devastating impact that Nestle had made in the developing world. All of the questionable sales and marketing practices Nestle carried out were finally exposed.

[Co-host]

The company would dress up their attractive saleswomen in nurses outfits and send them out to hospitals and pharmacies. They'd even sneakily copy the names and addresses of new mothers who had just given birth from hospital records and visit them at home. When they weren't doing this, they'd go as far as wandering residential streets and spotting which homes had baby clothes drying out front. What sort of commission have they got these people on that they're doing this shit? Because these saleswomen would then sit and convince these mothers, using the company's brochure, that Nestle's baby formula was better for their baby than their own breast milk was, and that not using it could have fatal consequences, when, of course, the opposite was true. They would then hand out just enough free samples of their baby formula that by the time these women ran out, they would have stopped lactating due to not breastfeeding, something which is not easy to reverse.

[Host]

So then, once the mothers had stopped lactating, their infants were now completely dependent on the baby formula. And because baby formula was quite expensive, after you'd run out of your free trial, these mothers would then have to try and make it last as long as possible by diluting it as much as they could. And once they ran out of baby formula, they often couldn't afford to buy any more, and by that point, also unable to produce their own breast milk. So that meant mothers had no choice but to resort to feeding their own children cornstarch or whole milk. What's more, many of these mothers lived in impoverished conditions, without access to clean drinking water, sterilised equipment or refrigeration, all of which are required to safely use baby formula. Also, the packaging and instructions for Nestle's baby formula were never in the local language. They were either in English or they were in French. And as a result of this, in the late 1960s, medical authorities began reporting a huge rise in malnourished infants, correlating to the rise in the use of baby formula.

[Co-host]

The Baby Killer pamphlet was then translated into German by Bern based 3rd World Action Group AGWD this time with the title Nestle Kills Babies and it was also published in Switzerland. Nestle responded by suing the organisation, but this move completely backfired. All the lawsuit did is the Barbra Streisand effect. It's the Barbra Streisand effect because all the lawsuit did was raise the publicity of the Baby Killer pamphlet and an international scandal against the company was triggered. After a two year long trial, the judge ruled in favour of Nestle, saying that they couldn't be held responsible for the infant deaths. In terms of criminal law, however, the defendants were only fined $400 instead of the $5 million that Nestle was suing for. The judge also ordered Nestle to modify their publicity methods fundamentally. Time magazine declared this a moral victory for the AGWD.

[Host]

In 1977, US campaigners launched a boycott against Nestle and quickly gained traction in Britain, Switzerland, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and much more of Europe. This boycott is somewhat unique as it wasn't about labour abuses or creating political pressure against a government. The Nestle boycott linked human rights regulations and humanitarian activism with corporate responsibility. The goal was to limit the power of huge multinationals like Nestle and force them to create a more ethical form of market capitalism.

[Co-host]

In 1978, executives from Nestle were brought before the US Senate for questioning about Nestle's responsibility for the deaths and illnesses of infants. But instead of acknowledging any wrongdoing, the representatives continued to dodge any responsibility. They blamed the poor water supplies of the countries and even the mothers themselves were misusing the products. The following year, the World Health Organization and UNICEF held an international meeting calling for the creation of the International Code of Marketing of Breast Milk Substitutes. This was aimed at setting standards of global corporate responsibility.

[Host]

However, even though the WHO didn't have the means to enforce this, it did manage to apply enough pressure to get Nestle to change its marketing strategies. For the time being anyway. In 1984, Nestle agreed to implement the code, signed an unprecedented agreement with the non governmental critics and ended the seven year international boycott. Part of the code meant that Nestle wasn't allowed to claim that baby formula was the equivalent of breast milk. But in the years since Nestle signed that agreement, they have been found to be in breach of it numerous times all over the world. And the Nestle Baby Killer boycott continues to this day. Ugh. Humans, man. Like I've had enough.

[Co-host]

It's so grim.

[Host]

Take me with you, Elon.

[Co-host]

It's so, so grim. But that's it guys. That is the shorthand on the Nestle Baby killer scandal and why we should all definitely not buy any fucking KitKats.

[Host]

Oh God, not Kit Kats.

[Co-host]

I think Kit Kat.

[Host]

I think you're right.

[Co-host]

I think it's a Kit Kat. So don't have a break unless you're nest. A break for murdering babies, you sick fucks.

[Host]

Oh, no kits, no Smarties, no Milky Bars, no Lion Bars, no arrows.

[Co-host]

Ah, I love an arrow.

[Host]

Well, tough shit.

[Co-host]

Well baked. I will give it up.

[Host]

Okay.

[Co-host]

Though I cannot remember the last time I ate an arrow. So it's fine. They're in the bin. But that's it guys. We will see you next week for something else. Goodbye.

[Host]

Bye.

[Advertiser]

Save on family essentials at Safeway and Albertsons this week at Safeway and Albertsons, enjoy eight piece double breaded famous chicken fried or baked dark meat featuring four legs and four thighs for just $5.99 each. Member price available in the deli and sweet red cherries are $2.97 per pound limit 6 pounds. Member price with digital coupon plus 24 ounce. Selected varieties of fresh cut fruit bowls are $5 each. Visit safewayoralbertsons.com for more deals and ways to save.

[Host]

Hi diva.

[Co-host]

It's Rachel and Jordan. Yeah, hi.

[Host]

Quick question. Why are you not spending your Venmo balance? Yeah, we're concerned you can like buy stuff with it. Ugh.

[Co-host]

You love buying stuff and earn cash

[Host]

back on eligible purchases. Mm.

[Co-host]

You love purchasing eligible things.

[Host]

So the money your friend sent you yesterday, that's today's ramen or rideshare or eye patches.

[Co-host]

The skincare kind, not the pyro kind. Spend with Venmo and you can earn cash back with Venmo stash. Venmo Stash bundle terms and Exclusions apply.

[Host]

Max $100 cash back per month.

[Co-host]

See terms@venmo me Terms ID verification required to use a Venmo balance.

[Advertiser]

Save on family essentials at Safeway and Albertsons. This week at Safeway and Albertsons, enjoy eight piece double breaded famous chick fried or baked dark meat featuring four legs and four thighs for just $5.99 each. Member price available in the deli and sweet red cherries are $2.97 per pound limit 6 pounds. Member price with digital coupon plus 24 ounce. Selected varieties of fresh cut fruit bowls are $5 each. Visit safewayoralbertsons.com for more deals and ways to save.