BornFree won early retail customers by educating parents about bisphenol A (BPA) before most of them had heard of it. This is Part 1 of the BornFree case study from Chapter 6 of For Immediate Release by Ronn Torossian. A small baby-bottle company made its co-founder the expert source on BPA, and Whole Foods and Babies "R" Us stocked its bottles.
How did BornFree begin?
BornFree began in 2006 as a company founded to remove BPA from baby bottles, and its first problem was that few parents knew why that mattered. The excerpt from Chapter 6 follows.
We launched a PR campaign for baby products company BornFree to educate consumers, with the help of medical experts, about the potential harm to babies from a chemical called bisphenol A (BPA).
BPA is in polycarbonate plastic, commonly used to make all sorts of plastic bottles, including those for babies. The chemical could be dangerous if it leaked into milk or other liquid. In fact, BornFree was founded on the principle of eliminating BPA from baby bottles.
In 2006 Gil Lemel, the president of Kyozou.com, a company that helps small businesses build e-commerce websites, had a friend come to him with the idea of starting a Web-based BPA-free baby bottle business. Lemel had just days before noticed his wife tossing out all the plastic containers in their house after seeing a news report about the dangers of BPA. It was one of those "convergence" moments when the same idea starts popping up in unusual places, but at around the same time.
Seeing his wife clearing out the cabinets of plastic containers struck a chord with Lemel. He ended up buying the rights to manufacture and sell his friend's BPA-free bottles in the United States and Canada. He figured it was just a matter of time before the news reports about the dangers of BPA "got legs" and started spreading around North America, especially since there is a great deal of interest among the press about green issues and health dangers. This fit right in; the more people knew about it, the more they would be eager to buy bottles that were safe. Who's going to take a chance with a baby?
Along with two business partners, Lemel invested in BornFree Holdings and started manufacturing bottles made of BPA-free polyethersulfone. The nine-ounce bottles featuring a cap with a slotted air vent, to help reduce colic and gas, cost the trio about $5 each to make. Lemel created a two-pack of BornFree bottles to market online and priced at $20.
Interest was slow at first. Few American moms and dads were concerned about BPA when Lemel and his partners first launched BornFree. Plus, the bottles were pricey. Despite the fact that there isn't as much price resistance when it comes to baby products as there is to other products in the marketplace, $10 a bottle seemed excessive when regular baby bottles could be had for just a few dollars each.
So the company capitalized on the very notion that formed the basis of the idea: information about the health of baby bottles. The company "expertized" itself. One of the partners, Ron Vigdor, took on the role of BPA educator-in-chief. He started writing and speaking to interested groups, including the People for Children's Health & Environmental Justice, to promote concerns about BPA. Simply by getting out there with information to targeted groups, Vigdor attracted interest from Whole Foods, which had already removed baby bottles and sippy cups containing BPA from its shelves in early 2006.
Whole Foods customers were perfect for BornFree because they are what is known as "early adopters," people who participate right on the cusp of movements. Babies "R" Us climbed on board shortly after.
In March 2007, the American Chemistry Council (ACC) complained to the national advertising division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus about BornFree's claim that its bottles were a "safer alternative."
What does the BornFree case teach?
The BornFree case teaches that a small company can win a category by becoming the expert on the problem its product solves.
Four moves stand out in the excerpt.
- BornFree built its product around a health concern and then educated the public about that concern.
- Its co-founder Ron Vigdor wrote and spoke to interested groups, which made him a source reporters and retailers could call.
- BornFree went first to an audience of early adopters, the Whole Foods customer, before the mass market.
- The company's advertising claim drew a formal complaint from the American Chemistry Council, which shows that education-first PR invites scrutiny and needs evidence behind each claim.
What does it mean for brands today?
Today the same approach means publishing the clearest, best-sourced explanation of your category's biggest question before competitors do.
Answer engines such as ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews summarize published explanations. A brand with named experts and sourced pages on a safety or health question gives those engines material tied to its name.
Where does the story continue?
The story continues in BornFree and BPA, Part 2, which covers how BornFree defined its category and filled shelves. Related Chapter 6 pages are The 24/7 Rolling Press Conference and Build on Every Media Hit. The Part 6 chapter overview and the For Immediate Release book hub list the rest.
Originally published October 2012. Last updated October 8, 2026.