New Milk Industry Ads to Push Value

01 Oct '08

Posted by: ryan in: Corporate Interests, Health and Nutrition

The ubiquitous (and unbelievably irritating) “Got Milk?” ads from the earlier part of the decade pushed milk as a healthful beverage, but according to The Consumerist, The Wall Street Journal is reporting that now the industry is changing their focus in light of the economic crunch:

Also Monday, the milk industry will begin running ads touting milk as a bargain. Financial guru Suze Orman will don the familiar milk mustache in a print ad that reads: "Even at today’s prices, a glass of milk only costs about a quarter…." The ad is a big departure from prior "Got Milk" campaigns that focused on the nutritional value of milk.

The milk industry plans to spend just under $1 million on the Suze Orman ads.

I guess that if they’re going to try and top the earlier “Got Milk?” ads for sheer annoyance, bringing in Suze Orman would be the person for the job.

It seems to me that you can’t get much more economical than fruits and vegetables when it comes to bang-for-the-buck health benefits. Alas, there’s no money in advertising broccoli or tomatoes.

The Leafy Green Growers of America don’t exist, but if they did, they could put out one heck of a counter-ad.

5 Responses

Hamlet
02|Oct|2008 1

Milk is cheap because it is subsidized.

What’s more, even though the milk industry gets corporate welfare to produce a product not everyone consumes, but they also run million dollar ad campaigns. If a person consumes dairy and believes that it is an essential group in the food pyramid, than advertising milk is poor use of even their tax dollars.

Fruit and vegetables producers don’t get fat paychecks from the government to exist while making million dollar ad campaigns. And that’s precisely the way it should be.

People are annoyed by the proposed Wall St bailout, but taxpayers “bailout” the milk and meat industries every year.

Consumers should pay the actual costs for production and advertising budgets of dairy and meat at time of purchase.
Vance
05|Oct|2008 2

That’s a good point about the “bailout.” Someone should get an ad campaign going around that.
glutenfreeforgood
07|Oct|2008 3

Geez, what next? I’d like to choose where my tax dollars go — small, local, organic farms maybe? Very interesting post. Thanks for the information.
Melissa
P.S. Have you seen the HFCS commercials yet? I did a post on that recently. Got corn syrup? Ugh!
David
09|Oct|2008 4

Believe it or not, the people who first came up with this foolish idea (at an advertising agency called Bozell) have been given industry awards for creativity and lionized like they’re the second coming of Picasso.
Missy
18|Nov|2008 5

We live in the city but buy unpasturized, grass-fed, hormone-free milk from a farmer who lives about an hour outside of Denver. Ever week he comes in and drops of half-gallon mason jars of milk to the share owners. We have to do a CSA thing since, technically, it’s illegal to sell unpasturized milk. Instead of buying his milk, we’re merely picking up our share of it as part-owner of the cow. It’s a shame you have to find loopholes like that to drink fresh milk these days.

PS: I come back here all the time and I love your Food Recalls widget in the side-bar!