The "Got Milk?" Campaign

The "Got Milk?" Campaign

Shortly after being recruited as the executive director of the California Milk Processor Board, Jeff Manning had a vision. The year was 1993 and Milk sales were declining both in California and throughout the country. Milk industry proponents spent the majority of the 1980s promoting the message that "Milk Does a Body Good," with an advertising campaign emphasizing the calcium and protein advantages of milk. Manning believed consumers were aware that milk was beneficial to their health but just didn't care.

The advertising firm Manning contracted to rebrand milk concentrated not exclusively on the benefits of milk, but on the risks of going without milk. Perhaps an advert would refer to difficulty eating a dry peanut butter sandwich or cookie, or the inability to eat a bowl of cereal. During a brainstorming session, Goodby Silverstein & Partners advertising partner Jeff Goodby wrote down a tagline: "got milk." Then he inserted a question mark. And over the following two decades, the "Got Milk?" campaign became as ingrained in popular culture as Nike's "Just Do It."

A Shift in Milk Consumption

As a result of public education and private health care, milk was a mainstay of kitchens worldwide in the 1950s and 1960s. Early 20th-century experiments of uncertain validity fed milk to rats and marveled at their lustrous coats. Children lined up in front of steel milk containers at schools to obtain their daily ration while pregnant ladies were persuaded huge quantities would be beneficial for their babies. For many individuals, mornings were defined by the sound of clinking bottles of milk dropped on doorsteps, as ubiquitous as mail delivery.

A paradigm shift began in the 1970s. While milk was still considered a necessary component of diets, it faced significant competition from soft drinks. Coca-Cola and Pepsi aggressively marketed soda as enjoyable to consume, delivering caffeinated energy and alluring packaging that occasionally offered rewards. In comparison, milk was chugged around in plastic or cardboard containers. If there was any design at all on the carton, it was frequently a basic depiction of a cow. Consuming it became perfunctory for many people.

A Solution by Goodby Silverstein & Partners

Goodby Silverstein & Partners' research uncovered an alternative. When consumers discussed milk usage, they often mentioned that running out was a cause of aggravation. While they may not have craved milk on a regular basis, the occasions when they might have used it — in coffee, cookies, or cereal — and couldn't gain a renewed respect for the beverage. When the firm installed a hidden camera in their own offices to record their employees' reactions to running out of milk, they saw a sense of disappointment.

With Manning's permission, the advertising agency decided to focus on a "Milk and..." campaign, emphasizing the many ways milk and food complement one another. This was further refined, with Goodby and his colleagues posing an open-ended question about a milk-deficient scenario. "Got Milk?" would depict the worst-case scenario, allowing consumers to mull over the ramifications of discovering an empty carton. The advertisements would be funded by California's largest milk processors, with three cents from each gallon of milk sold channeled to the campaign, which amounted to a total of approximately $23 million annually.

"Got Milk?" was formally discontinued in 2014 and replaced by a "Milk Life" campaign that reintroduced nutrition to the public consciousness. The average American consumes around 18 gallons of milk each year. It was 30 gallons in 1970. Today, plant-based milk manufactured from almonds and other unconventional sources is gaining market share.

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