- Annika Connor doesn't have a baby, so she was shocked to get a package of Enfamil baby formula.
- Jen St. Jude said she also received formula she didn't order or request.
- The marketing practice goes back years, but it raises concerns during a formula shortage.
When a package of Enfamil baby formula was delivered to Annika Connor's home this week, she was confused. The name and address on the package were correct, but Conner doesn't have a baby and had no idea why Mead Johnson, the maker of Enfamil, would send her a gift package containing three canisters of powdered formula and two ready-to-feed bottles.
"I'm a single, unmarried New Yorker that is not pregnant and not undergoing any fertility treatment at the moment," Connor told Insider.
Unaware of the severity of the formula shortage, Conner posted the package on a local "Buy Nothing" group on Facebook and was shocked by the volume of responses. She was happy to be able to give the formula to a family that needed it but questioned why she received it in the first place.
"If this is some sort of weird marketing campaign, and they're just sending random formula samples to women of a certain age, I think it's really bad because there's obviously mothers in need," she said.
She stressed that she wasn't angry but concerned. While Conner was simply confused by the arrival of unrequested baby formula, she worried that people struggling with infertility or infant loss could be deeply hurt if they received such a package unsolicited.
These unsolicited packages can be triggering
Jen St. Jude shared Conner's concerns. She received a package from a different formula company — Abbott, the maker of Similac — but unlike Conner, she believed she knew why. Two months ago, she created a baby registry as she was planning to adopt a baby. The adoption didn't happen, and the arrival of unsolicited baby formula felt invasive and potentially wasteful, she said.
—Jen St. Jude ☄️ (@jenstjude) May 11, 2022
"The baby was due around now, like a couple of weeks ago, so I thought, 'They just think I have a new child, and they're trying to hook me,' which I thought was a little annoying," said St. Jude, who was more annoyed when she realized how hard it is for parents to buy formula right now.
"It's kind of messed up that they're sending out the samples clearly to mass lists when people actually desperately need it," she said.
Insider contacted both Abbott and Mead Johnson, requesting clarification on why the companies sent formula samples to people who hadn't requested them during a formula shortage. Neither company responded.
Sending samples is a common practice in the baby industry
Sending formula samples in the mail was a common practice for baby-formula companies prior to the formula shortage, and a 2017 report by NBC Chicago found online complaints about unsolicited formula deliveries dating back to the early 2000s.
Many breastfeeding advocates are critical of the practice, and the World Health Organization stands against the targeted marketing of baby formula. But the United States has not adopted any legal measures to implement the WHO's international code of marketing of breast-milk substitutes.
Research showed that parents who got formula in the mail were less likely to be exclusively breastfeeding by the time the baby was 6 months old, and they were no less likely to have tried breastfeeding.
Connor was happy to give away the baby formula that arrived at her home, and St. Jude planned to take her unwanted delivery to a shelter. Meanwhile, parents across the nation are scrambling to find formula to feed their babies.
On Wednesday, Karine Jean-Pierre, the incoming White House press secretary, said the formula shortage was "a top priority," and that "the White House is working 24/7 to address" the critical need.