Got Milk? How the iconic campaign came to be, 25 years ago
It’s been a quarter century since those two little words entered public consciousness. Here’s the story of one of the most famous ad campaigns in history.
BY MATTHEW DADDONA
In 1993, a focus group headed by Jon Steel, a partner at the San Francisco-based advertising film Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, asked respondents not to consume milk for a week prior to participating in the study. Steel’s aim was to gather information about milk habits that would inform his pitch to a new client, the California Milk Processor Board, which was looking for creative strategies to boost sales.
When the respondents showed up, they were a little anxious about being deprived of the household staple. One man relayed his experience of coming downstairs to the kitchen in the morning before work, pouring out his cereal, slicing bananas on top of it, and then remembering his promise of abstinence. An ethical dilemma arose, the man later admitted to Steel. Would he use milk and simply lie to the rest of focus group? Or would he throw out the cereal? Worse yet, would he eat the cereal without milk?
A conversation snowballed in the room, and it became clear from others’ testimonials that…
