DoH looks for Breastfeeding Week agency

The Department of Health is looking for an agency to promote National Breastfeeding Awareness Week in May.

The DoH is understood to be talking to agencies about the business. Last year’s campaign, which ran mainly in national tabloids, was created by Lion, which has since gone into receivership.

The DoH confirmed it was looking for an agency but as Marketing Week went to press it could not confirm whether the work would be direct marketing, advertising or both.

Lion’s work on National Breastfeeding Awareness Week helped the agency to get a place on the COI roster last September as part of a COI restructure.

Lion’s brief last year was to target working class men who, it was hoped, would encourage their partners to breastfeed.

National Breastfeeding Awareness Week was launched in 1993, with the broad aim of raising awareness of the health benefits of breastfeeding and to increase social acceptance of it. This year it will run from May 12.

Recent statistics show the percentage of UK women breastfeeding has risen from 66 per cent in 1995 to 69 per cent in 2000. The increase has been particularly marked in low-income households, where the rate has increased from 50 per cent in 1995 to 62 per cent in 2000.