Got Propaganda? Why All Of The Milk Industry's Health Claims Have Been Proven Wrong

Marketers have been trying desperately for over a decade to increase the public's consumption of milk, but they keep failing. Here's why.

Selling milk looks easy and even fun when you see the celebrity milk-mustache ads. "Got Milk?" ads may be the most recognizable and spoofed of all ad campaigns, yet they are probably also one of the least successful: Milk sales have actually fallen every year since the ads began. The National Dairy Promotion and Research Program and the National Fluid Milk Processor Promotion Program admit "consumption has been declining for decades in the United States at about 1.0 percent per year," in their yearly reports to Congress but plead that their marketing has "helped mitigate at least some of this decline." Key words "help," "at least" and "some."

Why the milk-drinking slide? First, many U.S. groups simply do not drink much, or any, milk -- including ethnic minorities, those who are lactose intolerant or allergic, dieters, the health conscious, and vegans. Kids themselves often dislike milk -- probably why they invented chocolate and flavored milk -- and it is often the last choice among teens and tweens, on whom much milk marketing is focused. Healthcare professionals, unless subsidized by the dairy industry, seldom recommend milk because of its cholesterol, fat, calories, allergens and impurities and its possible links to rBGH (recombinant bovine growth hormone) since milk made with the cow milk enhancer has never been labeled. Benjamin Spock, the famous baby boom-era pediatrician, recommended no milk for children after age two to reduce their risks of heart disease, obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, and diet-related cancers.

More