Got Milk

“Got Milk”

            For this essay I will be using the “Got Milk,” advertisements that were created by Goodby Silverstein and Partners who also teamed up with the California Milk Processor Board to produce these advertisements.  I chose this ad campaign because I grew up seeing all the posters and commercials with all the athletes and celebrities I knew. 

            Goodby Silverstein and Partners partnered up with the California Milk Processor Board to create this advertisement to try and get an increase in milk sales.  They used athletes and celebrities to try and make it seem that if you drank milk that you would grow up to be just like the athletes or celebrities.  In every commercial, poster, or a page in a magazine that the athlete or celebrity was in they would have a glass of milk in their hand and having a milk mustache.  This ad campaign was created in 1993 and it still goes on today but it’s not as popular as it was when it first came out. 

            This campaign’s audience was basically for all ages but mainly intended for younger kids from about the age five to around 15 and even above that age.  It was intended for this age group because parents were having trouble getting this age group to drink milk and the milk sales were down.  They thought this campaign would increase milk sales but they were very wrong.  Instead of increasing the sales of milk decreased by 40 percent and the sales of dry cereal also decreased.  When I was a kid I remember seeing these advertisements everywhere.  I had a poster of Albert Pujols with a glass of milk in one hand, a baseball bat in the other, and a milk mustache on his lip.  I thought that if I drank milk I would grow up to be just like Albert and play in the MLB and that’s why I always drank milk. 

            In these advertisements the characters are athletes or celebrities that are very well known around the world.  The posters or pictures that have an athlete in it are usually taken place in their uniform and at their field, court, weight room, or wherever they play at.  When the celebrities are in the picture, the picture usually takes place wherever they do their work, which could be a movie set or wherever they did their business.  The major theme was to get the audience to drink more milk so they can grow up to be just like the athlete or celebrity.  The symbols in these advertisements were the glass of milk, the milk mustache, where the picture took place, and what the spokesperson was wearing.  Some of the spokespersons could have been double advertising with Nike or another brand.