Breast-Feeding Ads Stalled, 'Watered Down'

June 4, 2004 -- The U.S. government has unveiled a new advertising campaign to promote breast-feeding, after months of fierce lobbying to change its approach, ABC News has learned.

Watch Brian Ross' full report tonight on 20/20 at 10 p.m. ET

The campaign, announced today in Washington, D.C., is much different than what was first produced.

In what has been called a battle between mother's milk and corporate power, the companies that make infant formula put intense pressure on the government to change its approach.

ABC News has obtained the ads that were produced but never aired. One of the ads showed pregnant women at a roller derby violently competing and then the message: "You wouldn't risk your baby's health before it's born. Why start after?"

The other spots obtained by ABC News include pregnant women at a logrolling contest and riding a mechanical bull. They ended with a list of diseases that the ads said were more common among babies not breast-fed, including diabetes, leukemia and ear infections.

The ads were sponsored by the government and produced by the Ad Council, a nonprofit group that produces, distributes and promotes public service announcements. The ads were set to be released last December, but some formula companies complained after getting an early sneak preview of the ads before they hit the airwaves.

A spokesperson for the International Formula Council, the trade group for the formula industry, said they support breast-feeding and only objected to the commercials because they felt they were too negative in tone and inaccurate. No company official would talk to 20/20 about the efforts to kill the ads.