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April 23, 2013. Russian Fathers' Committee has sent the following letter to the Sandoz company offices in Moscow and Hamburg.



We found out with regret that Sandoz company has been distributing advertisements among its Russian customers which contains a slogan humiliating for nearly half of Russia's population, namely men and fathers.



This is about Linex for Children medicine.

May we pay your attention that the slogan "Even a Dad can do that" implies that the fathers by default can do with their children health worse than the mothers.

We believe such implication has been openly discriminatory towards the fathers' social group on the gender basis which is a direct violation of the article 19 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation that states "Men and women in Russia enjoy equal rights".

Besides, the implication made by Sandoz in the above mentioned advertisement is factually incorrect.



The distinction between responsible and irresponsible parents lays not along the gender lines but along social and cultural watershed.



We hope that discriminatory advertisement has appeared due to someone's negligence within Sandoz and not because of deliberate intention to humiliate Russia's men.



For your information, according to official data, in Russia one child is killed every three days by their mothers. Up to 80% of all crimes and abuses against minor children in this country have been committed by their mothers.



Thus, we demand that Sandoz to remove the given advertisement posters from everywhere it has placed them, do not allow appearance of such ads in future. We also expect Sandoz to offer formal apology to the responsible Russian fathers.



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April 30, 2013  SANDOZ company replied:



Dear representatives of the All-Russia Fathers' Committee movement,

 

Herewith Sandoz Russia would like to express its respect and appreciation of your observational approach towards our Linex®Baby marketing campaign.

 

We have considered your point of view and understood your position. Therefore, let us confirm you that there was no intention of discrimination. The slogan ‘Even Papa manages’ highlights a fact that focusing on our patients, Sandoz offers  Linex® Baby product as an easy solution for all parents taking care of children and it requires no complex preparation. Moreover, a new campaign for Linex® Baby is under development and we have taken your comments into consideration.

 

Patients are at the center of everything we do. Delivering quality and affordable  medicines to our patients in need is central to our mission as part of Sandoz and as part of Novartis Group.

 

We hope for your understanding.

 

 

Yulia Sorokina

PR & Communications Manager

ZAO Sandoz

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