Got Milk?

On our way to Chicago for some work meetings I sat next to a high powered businessman and we started talking about our kids, and the conversation rapidly evolved into discussions about our jobs. He works in marketing and is focusing on internet marketing, so we had lots in common to talk about. After a few minutes he told me that he spent 11 years working on the “Got Milk” marketing campaign, and that he was one of the first marketing executives to work on that account.

What I heard was pretty eye-opening.

He explained to me that, since milk is an expensive commodity (yes, a COMMODITY), their challenge when they started the campaign was to make people believe that it was NOT a commodity but a NECESSITY.

So what they did was they formed an alliance where all of the milk distributors teamed together to hire a very expensive PR agency. They created a “tax system” whereby for every single container of milk sold, a percentage would be paid for marketing the “milk collective”. So if you think of the “got milk” campaign – you never think of a brand – it promotes drinking milk, any milk, not a brand. By forming a collective it allowed them to have a much larger advertising budget for the product, and then they would all benefit from the campaign.

11 years ago the budget started at 35 million dollars a year to promote milk.

When he left the PR agency 4 years ago the budget was 235 million dollars a year.

Yes, my friends, 235 million dollars to promote milk. To tell people that milk is a necessity, not a commodity. To shift perception of milk so people think it’s healthy. To convince people that milk is the only source of calcium and that we all need it for bone health. 235 million dollars a year so every household in America would permanently keep a gallon of milk in their fridge.

Next time you believe that you HAVE to give your kids milk, you’ve been conned.

The truth is:

– Milk is NOT the only source of calcium – there are many other very healthy sources of calcium.

– You need magnesium to absorb calcium – so it’s very possible that you’re not absorbing ANY calcium from milk unless it has magnesium, and then you will only absorb as much calcium as there is magnesium.

– In order to meet the demand on milk, distributors use hormones and other products to increase production of milk and special tools to extract it. Often there is blood in the milk from these products which then cannot be removed and is disguised in the sold product. Also, what and how are those cows being fed? Doesn’t that affect quality of the milk?

– Milk proteins are very large and difficult to digest, and can cause problems for people with sensitive digestive systems.

– There are wonderful calcium/magnesium supplements that are better for the body than milk, like Floradix.

– Raw organic milk has valuable enzymes and other health benefits.

The obvious question is, if you stop giving your child milk, what can you replace it with? Here are some good milk replacement suggestions:

– Coconut milk
– Almond milk
– Hemp milk
– Rice milk

Some people also use soy but I am not a big fan of soy because the proteins in soy are also hard and difficult to digest.

I hope you find this as enlightening and eye-opening as I did!

Comments

  1. This is very interesting to me, Marcela and I thank you! I like learning about the marketing industry and dairy is an issue for me personally.

  2. Who would have thought that you could so much from a stranger on a plane? Interesting for those who cannot have dairy. I know that Little Man would be much littler if it were not for coconut milk!

  3. Yes yes yes! VERY interesting (and disturbing…)!!! We drink raw goat’s milk or rice milk usually. I make smoothies with coconut milk & LOVE IT! YUM! I’ve tried almond & hemp & like those both, too! But seem to stick with the other 2 for some reason…

    Do you guys drink raw milk?

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