Baby Drools Breast Milk, Ohio Residents Freak Out

This billboard from Ohio’s state health department promoting breastfeeding isn’t going over well, and not because it implies formula can’t satisfy infants. People find the milk on the baby’s chin gross — that liquid came from a lady’s breast!

Ohio resident Stephanie Swan told FOX Toledo that she doesn’t like the ad even though she’s pro-breastfeeding, saying:

When I first saw it I thought, you know, I agree with breast milk, it’s fine but then I saw it with the milk around its mouth and I though that was so unappealing.The baby’s cute, but I did not like the milk coming out of his mouth.

But what’s so disgusting about a little milk dribble? Everyone loves “Got Milk” ads, but the liquid in those ads comes from a cow’s udder, not a woman’s nipple. Plenty of baby food ads show kids with food smeared all over their faces, so why is being coated in mushy peas cute while breast milk is “unappealing”?

It’s possible people are just disturbed by the ravenous look on the baby’s face, not the idea that he’s been breastfeeding. A Cleveland Scene reader who submitted the photo of the billboard said, “The little fella looks SATISFIED AS HELL – like a tit vampire with all the drool and boob milk dripping off his chin.”

The idea of fangs anywhere near nipples is disturbing, but “vampire” isn’t really the first thing that springs to mind when you look at this little guy, as he doesn’t appear to be sparkling in the sunlight or participating in an angsty inter-species love triangle.

Maybe these days people are just so used to seeing breasts filling out Victoria’s Secret bras that they don’t like thinking about them producing food for babies. If people are offended by the “Milk Satisfies” billboard, just imagine the reaction this 1910 ad from the Chicago Health Department would get today:

Drawings of women breastfeeding are even more disgusting than a little milk on the chin, though the ad does send the important message that babies don’t like vanilla lattes and Miller Lite.

Ohio Not Drooling Over Breast-Milk Billboard [AdWeek]
Breast Milk Satisfies Campaign [FOX Toledo]
About Those “Breast Milk Satisfies” Billboards [Cleveland Scene]
A Little Whisky In The Milk Is Fine Though, Right? [Copyranter]