Got milk?
Yeah, we know, that marketing slogan stopped being effective, and started being annoying, about a decade ago.
The milk industry needed its next big ad campaign and it looks like they just might have found it.
The San Clemente-based California Milk Processor Board recently launched the “Everything I Do Is Wrong” ad campaign, in which they poke fun at PMSing women and side with the supposed victims: the men who have to put up with their bitchy wives and girlfriends during the monthly crimson tide.
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So, how does milk fit in?
The ad has its roots in science, the milk board says. On their website, there's a link to a study from the late '90s that concludes that “a high intake of calcium and vitamin D may reduce the risk of PMS.”
If you go to everythingidoiswrong.org, where the ads used to be housed, however, you'll be automatically directed to a different website: gotdiscussion.org.
Why? Well, the milk board pulled the ads after an onslaught of complaints.
Susan Campbell, an opinion writer at the Hartford Courant, starts her piece on the ad campaign like this: “I am post-menopausal, but I'm still pissed.” Campell quotes Regina Barreca, a college professor, who says, “This isn't funny because it's too simple. For humor to work, there has to be complexity involved.”
Since the board pulled them, you can't see the ads on the website anymore. This Adweek story, however, has pictures of the ads, one of which shows an apologetic-looking man holding several cartons of milk and saying, “I'm sorry I listened to what you said and not what you meant.”
Gotdiscussion.org, the new website, welcomes comments, both positive and negative, and offers an apology–kind of. “Over the past couple of weeks, regrettably, some people found our campaign about milk and PMS to be outrageous and misguided–and we apologize to those we offended. Others thought it funny and educational.”
Sure, some people are pissed, but remember, whiners, no press is bad press.
As reported by the LA Weekly, our sister paper, Hollywood even had an “Everything I Do Is Wrong” rally earlier in the month.
The good news is, the next time you order a glass of milk, you just might get a hefty side of discussion for free!
