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PHJ № 3 (47) 2025 — V. A. Veremenko, Ju. V. Sutula. “THE ART OF PERSUASION” — FOREIGN INFANT FORMULA ON THE RUSSIAN MARKET IN THE LATE 19TH — EARLY 20TH CENTURIES

The article, drawing upon a comprehensive array of sources including advertising materials, professional literature by hygienists and physicians, publications from the specialist and women’s press, as well as corporate records, undertakes a thorough analysis of the pivotal role of advertising agencies in the dissemination of foreign infant formula within the domestic market during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. During this period, more than 20 foreign companies offering breast milk surrogates were represented in Russia. The significant cost of these products meant that they were accessible only to the wealthy segment of the country’s population. The advertisement, which promised high-quality, useful and easy-to-use products, was aimed at this educated public. The position of doctors, some of whom participated in the formulas’ advertising, the presence of these companies’ products at all hygiene exhibitions, with the attribution of “proper nutrition”, as well as a well-thought-out advertising campaign, provided foreign manufacturers with an almost monopoly position in the artificial baby food market.

PHJ № 4 (44) 2024 – V. A. Veremenko, Ju. V. Sutula. CONQUERING THE CHILDREN’S WORLD: FOREIGN “MILK” FORMULAS AND METROPOLITAN CONSUMERS IN RUSSIA IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE 19TH — EARLY 20TH CENTURIES

The article, based on a wide range of sources, characterizes the Russian market of artificial feeding products in the second half of the 19th — early 20th centuries. Attention is drawn to the fact that the main consumers of these products were representatives of two extremely different categories of children (the poorest and the most affluent). This circumstance contributed to the capture of the domestic market by foreign manufacturers. Only specialists of children’s institutions could prepare the milk formulas proposed by European inventors on their own, in accordance with an extremely complex recipe, and the expensive instant “patent product” was affordable only for wealthy families. It was the latter category of consumers that was targeted by a large-scale advertising campaign, conducted by foreign companies, promising mothers a full guarantee of baby food quality and the incredible ease of its home preparation. Responsible parents, not believing in the quality of either the dairy products sold in the capital or domestic mixtures, preferred to pay huge amounts of money for diluted starch or crushed crackers.