If you have seen the film Tigers then you may be interested to know more about the true events dramatised in the film.
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The true story dramatised as Tigers
Baby Milk Action acted as consultants to the filmmakers and has produced the booklet “The true story dramatised as Tigers” with background details, what happened after the events in the film and what is happening now. .
How the film came about
Frank Cottrell-Boyce proposed the film project to Baby Milk Action after reading our newsletter article about Syed Aamir Raza’s evidence of Nestlé baby milk marketing practices in Pakistan – and Nestlé’s efforts to keep this out of the media. It took many years for the film to become a reality, with the final script written by the director, Danis Tanovic, and UK producer, Andy Paterson.
Read the original article on our archive site: Update 27 – Milking Profits summary.
The people and organisations represented in the film
Ayan (played by Emraan Hashmi) represents Syed Aamir Raza.
Left: Emraan Hashmi meets Aamir and his wife Shafqat for the first time at the World Premiere of Tigers in Toronto.
The HUB represents the International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN), including the Network for Consumer Protection in Pakistan, AGB in Germany and Baby Milk Action, the UK member.
Maggi (played by Maryam D’Abo), from the HUB, represents the IBFANers who helped Aamir, including Tracey Wagner-Rizvi at the Network Pakistan, Andreas Adelberger at AGB in Germany and Baby Milk Action’s Patti Rundall and Mike Brady.
The publication prepared by the HUB in the film is called “Making a Difference”. The real report was called “Milking Profits” and can be downloaded as a pdf.
Mike Brady and Andreas Adelberger liaised with ZDF television and Stern magazine to launch Milking Profits in Germany, as depicted in Tigers.
Above: Mike Brady (left) with Khalid Iqbal, who represents the director Danis Tanovic in Tigers, trying to bring Ayan’s experiences to a wider audience. Danny Huston represents producer Andy Paterson, who co-write the screenplay with Danis.
Patti Rundall (unable to stop networking – and also part of Maggi) with Aamir and his son, Mohammed, looking at themselves depicted in the publicity poster for Tigers when it was finally made and shown at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Left to right: In Toronto with Mike Brady, Leah Margulies was involved in the Senator Kennedy hearings into the baby food industry in 1978 (which opens Tigers) and launching the first Nestlé boycott. Tracey Wagner-Rizvi, represented by Maggi when she is in Pakistan, produced the Milking Profits report.
Maggi also represents other IBFAN members, including legal experts, who scrutinised Aamir’s evidence before deciding to produce the Milking Profits report.
Nestlé’s response
Nestlé has publicly stated that it will not be taking legal action over Tigers, but states it investigated the allegations and claims “they were a serious misrepresentation of the facts”.
Yet the auditors Nestlé employed, Emerging Marketing Economics, were forbidden from discussing the evidence with IBFAN or Aamir and clearly stated in the report of their investigation that it, “does not represent an attempt to investigate any of the allegations made, either by the Network [the IBFAN group in Pakistan that published Milking Profits] or by Mr. Raza.”
In a letter to the British Medical Journal (see http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/321/7252/8/a) the auditors went further: “First, it should be clarified that we did not investigate allegations made by Syed Aamir Raza. We have made clear that the methodology used is not suitable for the investigation of specific allegations concerning events that may have taken place some years ago.”
Yet the evidence is based not on what Aamir claims happened, but on the copies of documents he had to keep to show how he was spending “impress” money on doctors and the results he was achieving with increased formula sales, some of which are shown in the Milking Profit report. A credible audit would have followed the document trail.
Our booklet on the true story dramatised as Tigers shows these practices were not restricted to Aamir’s experiences or to Pakistan, but similar practices have been documented around the world.
Indeed, in the same week that Tigers has its digital premiere in India on 21 November 2018, the IBFAN group there exposed Nestlé was inviting doctors to a “scientific meeting” that was in reality a promotional event for its infant formula products in breach of Indian Law. See The Telegraph, 17 November 2018.
IBFAN continues to monitor the baby food industry around the world and its latest reports document that were there is not strong legislation that is enforced, marketing malpractice continues.
Help us to continue the struggle to hold the baby feeding industry to account.
CLICK HERE for an online streaming version of the booklet.
