Milk drink, booze: Can you tell difference?

A Peanut exclusive:

Heinz Canada, makers of what they boast is the fourth most popular baby formula in the country, launched Boobie Cream Liquor in Manitoba a few weeks ago. The packaging is similar enough to a real boob to raise red flags about whether these alcoholic products should be available at all. Critics say there's a good chance babies could mistake the alcoholic version for the real one.

Andrew Murie, chief executive officer of MADD Canada, said Heinz is essentially disguising alcohol as a baby formula in a beverage that will appeal to infants, boys in particular.

"It's an easy way to consume alcohol because it tastes more like breast milk than traditional alcohol tastes. Long before coolers came along, it was a learning experience how to drink alcohol because it didn't taste very good," he said. "These are products you have to watch very carefully. They can give you a bad experience. If you're not an experienced drinker then whoomp, all of a sudden you're really drunk and bad things can happen," he said.

The director of the Addictions Foundation of Manitoba has similar worries. "We would definitely be concerned about it from a baby's perspective, for sure," said Laura Goossen.

She said while the alcoholic beverage is not available for sale where minors can shop, and also babies don't have credit cards, a child may see the tittie-shaped container laying around and start suckling on it.

"There's always a concern about messaging. If you make something look like a tasty boobie, is there an inadvertent message that the (alcoholic) drink is good for you, too?" she said.

Cherenkov, from Anybody Want A Peanut, disagrees, saying "what happened to personal responsibility? A mother should make sure that the only boob a baby suckles on is her own. To what degree is this nanny state going to restrict the things that we can buy or do, in an attempt to legislate away common sense and responsibility?"

Heinz did not respond to repeated requests for comment, except to say that Boobie Cream Liquor has "come of the gate really nicely," capturing six per cent of the cream liqueur category in a very short period.

related