HISTORY’s Moment in Media: Launching the Got Milk? Campaign

Itamp8217s a simple question and one of the most recognizable marketing taglines of all time It debuted in October 1993 30 years ago this month with a TV spot poking fun at a history buff who canamp8217t quite name Aaron Burr as the man who shot Alexander Hamilton well before the revolutionary pairamp8217s Broadway fame and directed by none other than Michael Bay well before his action blockbuster fameThe ad kicked off what would turn out to be a 21year campaign that included both TV spots and perhaps even more iconic the milk mustache print ads and posters shot by Annie Leibovitz And it all started because the legendary San Francisco ad agency Goodby Silverstein ampamp Partners couldnamp8217t quite figure out how to pitch a new concept for what seemed like the most boring product imaginableIt was a Goodby partner named Jon Steel who held a focus group to come up with ideas to inform a pitch to the California Milk Processor Board which was looking for new ways to drive sales Milk had long been sold as a healthy almost obligatory productIn the 1950s and amp821660s it was simply what kids drank In the 1980s its tagline was amp8220Milk does a body goodamp8221 But starting in the amp821670s soft drinks like Coke and Pepsi started driving hard for the youth market By the amp821690s there was competition from sports drinks like Gatorade and even new products like Snapple that wrapped their sugary products in a milkrivaling veneer of healthfulness A new chief of the California milk group Jeff Manning realized the we are goodforyou pitch wasnamp8217t working and was looking for a new idea Goodbyamp8217s Steel was trying to figure out what that could beIn preparation for the focus group he asked the participants not to drink any milk for a week before the study And when they finally met with him they all talked about how much they missed it One man told the story of getting up one morning pouring a bowl of cereal slicing some banana on top and then remembering he couldnamp8217t have milk and wondering if he should just lie about it The rest of the group told similar stories and Steel realized he was onto something When the agency held a meeting to talk about it Goodby suggested calling it amp8220Got Milkamp8221 with a question mark A tagline was born and the seeds of what became known as a deprivation marketing campaign selling the product by highlighting its absenceThat first spot brings us to the homeslashshrineslashmuseum of an Alexander Hamilton enthusiast who is listening to the radio and making himself a big peanut butter sandwich He takes a bite just as the DJ announces the luckycaller question of the day Who shot Hamilton The manamp8217s phone rings and of course he knows the answer Aaron Burr But with his mouth full of peanut butter the words are unrecognizable He reaches for his nearby milk carton but there are only drops left He loses out on 10000 Got milkOther ads were equally memorable and goofy In one a Scroogelike figure is hit by a truck and wakes up in an afterlife of enormous chocolate chip cookies and empty milk cartons In another an oldtimey clairvoyant kid wonamp8217t eat birthday cake because he can foresee there will be no milkBut the real success came when the California board got Goodby to start licensing their tagline In 1995 the national milk marketing group called the Milk Processor Education Program or MilkPEP launched the milkmustache campaign Their first print ad featured Naomi Campbell and the tagline amp8220Milk What a surpriseamp8221 which was soon replaced with amp8220Got milkamp8221 Eventually 180 celebrities appeared in the ads from Kermit the Frog to amp8220Stone Coldamp8221 Steve AustinAnd Got Milk became a amp821690s icon The California Milk Boardamp8217s Manning convinced Nabisco to make a Got Milk Oreo There were Got Milk Girl Scout cookies Mattel made a Got Milk Barbie Even Cookie Monster joined in Even the spoofs were legionThere was only one problem Sales data showed that Got Milk didnamp8217t actually do enough to help sell milk In 2014 MilkPEP retired the campaign after per capita consumption of fluid milk and cream fell by 25 percent from 1975 to 2012In 2020 they brought it back with a socialfirst campaign that included influencers and sports stars The impetus the milk people said was a pandemicera boost in milk consumptionBut still sales of traditional milk continue to decline Gen Z is turning to milk alternatives like plantbased products and dairy milk sales have now reached alltime lows Todayamp8217s MilkPEP campaigns are pushing back with efforts like Gonna Need Milk TeamMilk and amp8220Only real milk is realamp8221 But even the most recent of those ads tend to end with a certain two wordsClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillageorgMyersBizNet

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HISTORY’s Moment in Media: Launching the Got Milk? Campaign

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HISTORY’s Moment in Media: Launching the Got Milk? Campaign

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