[Advanced] Where Has All the Milk Gone? (3) 2014/08/20

Creating a game plan
The dairy industry is fighting back with a new marketing campaign launched [in February]. “Got milk?” has been replaced — except in California — by the slogan “Milk life.” New ads play up milk’s protein content. High protein has become a major health-oriented marketing strategy for food makers.

The ads’ message is that milk provides the energy to power a person’s day, said Colle and McVoy’s Anderson. “It’s a much more practical approach than “Got milk?”

Of course, marketing can only go so far. “There’s a lack of innovation in dairy,” Bozic said. The industry “needs to offer people more variety.”

Bozic said there could be a promising market for milk that undergoes “filtering” to boost nutrient concentrations and lower sugar levels. Fairlife, a Chicago-based company, is aiming to develop such a market, rolling out first in Minnesota's Twin Cities.

Fighting the good fight
The company is the brainchild of a husband-and-wife team who own a dairy farm in northwest Indiana. Fairlife makes filtered milk with 50 percent more protein and calcium and half the sugar of regular milk.

Sue McCloskey, one of Fairlife’s founders, said she sees her milk going up against not only other dairy products, but all sorts of beverages, from juices to plant milks. “Our competition is all of the grab-and-go beverages.

”Bringing people back to the milk fold won’t be easy; tastes have been changing. Take the experience of Stacey Sundquist, a lawyer in Minnesota. She and her husband have three kids under age 10 who drink milk regularly at meals.

Until a few years ago, Sund­quist herself drank milk three times a day. Now, she drinks more water and has developed a taste for almond milk, including in her morning oatmeal. Sundquist made the switch after reading about antibiotics and hormones used in raising cows.


Vocabulary Focus
play up (something) (phr v) to emphasize a particular quality or part of something, or make it seem more imortant than it really is, usually for your own advantage

brainchild n.
something originally invented or thought of by someone

the fold n.
your home or an organization where you feel you feel you belong


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