Is it Rude to Breastfeed in Public?
Constant reader Bernard Wishnia sent me this Oreo advertisement of a baby breastfeeding. I could tell immediately that this was not intended for an American audience. I would easily have bet the country of origin was South Korea or Japan, but not because of the baby's facial features - but because South Koreans and Japanese are much more advanced in matters of nudity than Americans are.
The ad in fact was created by South Korean marketing and communications agency Cheil Worldwide. The tagline is "Oreo is milk’s favorite cookie."
Although I would never feed candy or cookies to my children, the ad is not trying to sell Oreos to infants. It's a clever ad and it is sad that my own country is not as comfortable with public breastfeeding as most of the rest of the world.
To answer the question, "Is it Rude to Breastfeed in Public?" The answer is that it is rude to complain about public breastfeeding. As I wrote in my article Mother`s Breasts Offend Airline Stewardess, "if you are offended by the sight of someone breastfeeding, don't look."
