Got Milk? Only In California: National Industry Group Drops Slogan

You can take away an advertising slogan, but you can never take my milk mustache indicating that I do, indeed, have milk. The Milk Processor Education Program is dropping its 29-year-old tagline “Got Milk?” in favor of a new one to highlight how nutritional the stuff is. Only the California group is keeping the slogan instead of switching to “Milk Life.”

The national dairy milk industry is facing stiff competition from non-dairy products like soy, rice and almond milk, and as such decided it was time to introduce a new national campaign.

Got Milk? was first used by the California Milk Processor Board in 1993, which then licensed the use of the phrase to the national group in 1995. That group will still use the tagline.

The problem is people don’t seem to be drinking much milk anymore, and while the old tagline was popular, focus now is on things like the protein content of milk as it tries to compete with other beverages, notes Advertising Age.

For example, one TV ad shows milk powering athletic endeavors like running, playing basketball or rocking out during a concert onstage.

A print ad of a girl with an electric guitar reads: “What 8 grams of protein looks like when you unleash your inner rock star.”

Protein is “really in the news and on consumer’s minds,” said Julia Kadison, interim CEO of MilkPEP. “But a lot of people don’t know that milk has protein, so it was very important to make that connection between milk and protein.”

And now no one will ever ask if I have milk again. Feels a little sad.

You can follow MBQ on Twitter if you want to hear about how she drowns her sorrows in milk: @marybethquirk

‘Got Milk’ Dropped as National Milk Industry Changes Tactics [Advertising Age]

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