The dairy milk industry is continuing to use humor and entertainment to combat its business challenges, this time with help from Queen Latifah and Cardi B.
Fresh off its “Wood Milk” takedown of trendy plant-based milk alternatives, the Milk Processor Education Program (MilkPEP) today is debuting a campaign defending milk drinkers from “milk shaming,” or what it called “the act of making milk drinkers feel embarrassed, shameful and disgraced simply for their love of an ice-cold glass of dairy milk.”
The campaign from MilkPEP and agency Gale comes in the form of a facetious public service announcement and a facetious support group—OK2Milk—designed to provide community and compassion for milk drinkers feeling a backlash. Callers to the 888-OK-2-MILK phone line will hear a message from actress and singer Queen Latifah, who is among the celebrities aligned with the campaign—Cardi B and Kelis are others. Queen Latifah is featured in a new ad.
The ad features the stories of shamed milk drinkers, such as a mom who made the mistake of bringing chocolate milk to her son’s baseball game and a man left flat after ordering milk on a date. The messaging will be amplified through a digital and influencer campaign, including celebrities such as Cardi B and Kelis, in the coming weeks, MilkPEP said.
The media buy includes Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.
MilkPEP is funded by U.S. milk companies. While the support group and shaming incidents may not be real, the perception issues facing milk, and the often overheated reactions to it, are not. Speaking at Ad Age’s Business of Brands conference last week in New York, Yin Woon Rani, CEO and chief marketing officer of MilkPEP, said the group is looking to marketing to help make milk more modern and relevant.
“[Milk] has amazing nutritional delivery, it has amazing health benefits. It does not have an awareness problem. It does not have a product problem,” she said. “I think it’s lost its way in terms of relevance and modernity, so we talk a lot about how to modernize milk, how to reclaim milk’s mojo, and make sure we are a part of culture in a positive way, and not be defined by our detractors.”
With its use of humor, celebrity and elements including merchandise and a charitable component, “OK2Milk” resembles the “Wood Milk” campaign introduced earlier this year by MilkPEP and Gale. “Wood Milk” skewered the popularity of plant-based milk alternatives by introducing an almost plausible product, wood milk, pumped from trees and pitched by a deadpan Aubrey Plaza.
Brad Simms, CEO of Gale, said a goal of “Wood Milk” and now “OK2Milk” was to develop a “multi-touchpoint experience” that can hold an audience’s attention across mediums.
“We’re not trying to make advertising, we’re trying to make entertainment, and we hold that bar very high,” Simms said at the Business of Brands event. “We’re not trying to be ad-funny, we’re trying to be real funny.”
Up to $10,000 of the proceeds from merchandise aligned with OK2Milk will be donated to Stomp Out Bullying—a real-life organization dedicated to preventing cyberbullying and educating against homophobia, LGBTQ+ discrimination, racism and hatred.
“I think the use of humor, the use of social insight, [and] also the use of celebrity spokesperson like Queen Latifah, is our way to make sure [consumers] understand that milk fits into modern life,” said Rani. “Humor I think is sort of the currency of social media activity for the young generation.”
