Reaching Out

Last night I attended the America's Greatest Heart Run and Walk Health Expo. I went to this on behalf of my counties dairy promotion. We had a booth set up there where we gave away free dairy products to passerby's in hopes that we help them to achieve their recommended three servings of dairy products everyday. I went for the last part of the night and we had run out of product, so we instead resorted to passing out posters and stickers and milk mustaches. I really saw a wide age range of people that took posters because their favorite singer, actress, sports player, or even cartoon was sporting that familiar milk mustache. With every poster given out was the constant and subtle reminder to consume your three servings of dairy products.
I enjoy getting to interact with the young minds in hopes to shape them into knowledgeable consumers of the future. But I overheard one young passer-byer with her mother, and the statement that came out of her mouth really hurt. No it wasn't that milk doesn't taste good or that she'd rather prefer a soda, it was that "I hate this," she was referring to the posters. She then continued with,"they have these all over my cafeteria and they are so annoying." I wanted to jump right over the booth and promote that much more, but her mom stopped her, made her come back to the booth, look at the posters and then said, "You need to apologize, dairy farmers are just trying to promote their business and constantly advertise to young people like you the importance of dairy products." Of course the look of "I hate you Mom" was on the daughters face at this time, but her mother continued with "You don't see soda companies and sports drinks advertising in schools, because they are constantly on tv commercials." The little girl at that point changed her opinion and asked for a milk mustache of her own show she could be like her favorite singer, Taylor Swift, and promote dairy.
This just goes to show the power of advertisement. The milk mustache posters have been around for years and you can often see your favorite celebrity sporting that mustache. It's the mustache that's even cool for girls to wear. It wasn't until last night that I realized the true power of advertising, that little girl sees those posters every school day and they stick with her. I did ask her what she drinks with her lunch and was very pleased to hear it was a refreshing chocolate milk. So have you had your three today?

To find out more on the milk mustache program or find your favorite celebrity, check out www.bodybymilk.com. Keep on consuming!