got milk?

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Got Milk? is an American advertising campaign encouraging the consumption of cow's milk, which was created by the advertising agency Goodby Silverstein & Partners for the California Milk Processor Board in 1993 and later licensed for use by milk processors and dairy farmers. It has been running since October 1993. The campaign has been credited with greatly increasing milk sales nationwide after a 20-year slump^{[citation needed]}.

History

The ads would typically feature people in various situations involving dry or sticky foods and treats such as peanut butter. The person then finds himself in an uncomfortable situation due to a full mouth and no milk to wash it down. At the end of the commercial the character would look sadly to the camera and boldly displayed would be the words, "Got Milk?".

The first Got Milk advert ran in October 1993, and featured a hapless history buff (played by Sean Whalen) receiving a call to answer a radio station's $10,000 trivia question (voiced by Rob Paulsen), "Who shot Alexander Hamilton in that famous duel?" The man's apartment is shown to be a private museum to the duel, packed with artifacts. He answers the question correctly, but because his mouth is full of peanut butter and he had no milk to wash it down, his answer was unintelligible. The ad, directed by Hollywood director Michael Bay, was at the top of the advertising industry's award circuit in 1994. From 1994-1995, fluid milk sales in the 12 regions totaled 23.3 billion pounds, and increased advertising expenditures amounted to $37.9 million. In 2002, the ad was named one of the ten best commercials of all time by a USA Today poll, and was run again nationwide that same year. It has since been featured in numerous books on advertising and is being used in case studies at top-flight programs around the country.^{[citation needed]}

In 2006, the campaign went after a new demographic with a series of Spanish-language “Toma Leche?” or “Do you take and drink milk?” ads in which milk is touted as a "wonder tonic" with muscle and hair building qualities. In 2008, the campaign capitalized on the poor economic condition of Americans and used financial adviser and talk show host, Suze Orman, in an effort to advertise milk as a smart and nutritious commodity to purchase. In addition, some Got Milk billboards depicted cookies and sandwiches with a bite taken out of them (one billboard featured two Hostess chocolate cupcakes with the words Got Milk written in icing) and cats with sad looks on their faces.

The slogan "got milk?" was licensed to the National Milk Processor Board (MilkPEP) in 1998 to use on their celebrity print ads, which since 1995, included celebrities from the fields of sports, media and entertainment, as well as fictional characters from TV and film such as The Simpsons and Batman, posing in print advertisements sporting a "milk moustache", employing the slogan, "Where's your mustache?"

The voice saying "Got Milk?" at the end of each television ad is that of veteran voiceover actor Denny Delk.

According to the Got Milk website, the campaign has over 90% awareness in the US and the tag line has been licensed to dairy boards across the US since 1995. Got Milk is a powerful property and has been licensed on a range of consumer goods including Barbie dolls, Hot Wheels, baby and teen apparel, and kitchenware. The trademarked line has been widely parodied by groups championing a variety of causes. Many of these parodies use a lookalike rather than the actual persons used in the original Got Milk adverts.

In 2008, the campaign capitalized on the poor economic condition of Americans and used financial adviser and talk show host, Suze Orman, in an effort to advertise milk as a smart and nutritious commodity to purchase.^[1] They also made a commercial based on the Mario series showing a little clip of Super Mario 64 for the Nintendo 64.

Parodies and imitations

The “got milk?” campaign used humor and suddenly it became cool to drink milk. It focused on increasing awareness of milk’s use in losing weight and staying healthy. Not only that, the campaign became immensely popular with consumers and “got milk?” became a phrase used in common conversation. The slogan has appeared in numerous alternative versions on tee shirts, advertisements, and real advertisements. For the most part the California Milk Processor Board has ignored the alternative uses, although in 2007 it threatened lawsuit against PETA for its anti-dairy campaign, "Got pus", which began in 2002. Items with the “got milk?” logo printed on them became popular: kitchen items (baby bids, aprons, and dish towels), outdoor ads along high-traffic commuter routes, television spots, billboards, bus stops, decals on grocery store floors, etc. In 1998, the slogan “got milk?” campaign expanded to include the faces, but not the names, of celebrities. By adding the celebrity cachet, awareness of drinking milk has increased 90%. Today the slogan is an international icon and the phrase has been parodied more than any other ad slogan.^[2]

List of endorsers

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Fictional characters depicted in ads

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References

External links

• Official website
• Body By Milk
• Why Milk?
• Got Milk? Rookie Report
• Toma Leche?
• Milky Way illuminates Labatt Park by James Reaney of The London Free Press, October 2005
• Got Milk? case history
• Got Milk? Ad Campaigns From Around the World by Amy Gifford of InventorSpot.com, 2007