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Got milk? Not this generation
New York Times
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To the marketers trying to reboot
milk as a sports drink for Generation Z, Yvonne Zapata seemed like the perfect
ambassador. An exuberant 24-year-old marathoner from Brooklyn, New York, she
describes herself as a proud Latina runner. Her nickname is Miss Outside.اضافة اعلان
The Milk Processor Education Program signed her to its 26.2 project, an ambitious effort to provide training, gear, advice, and other support to every woman who runs a marathon in the US this year. In March, Zapata’s face lit up a giant Times Square billboard. She starred in her own video. Her portrait is one of several anchoring the Gonna Need Milk website.
“Dairy milk is good,” she explained in an interview, “but I feel like realistically it’s unhealthy”.
She grew up hearing that dairy products were not good for her sports-induced asthma. Then her sister became a vegan and made a strong case against them. But Zapata is dedicated to getting women with different shapes and from different cultures to embrace running, so she joined #TeamMilk.
“I feel like that’s more important than whether milk is good for you,” she said.
Yvonne Zapata, who trains in Central Park, an ambassador for a milk producers’ campaign called 26.2 that aims to offer support to every woman running a marathon in the US this year.
Zapata is part of the Not Milk generation, teenagers and young adults who grew up ordering milk alternatives at coffee shops and toting water bottles everywhere. Turned off by the no-fat and low-fat milks served at school, worried about climate change, and steeped in the increasing skepticism toward the dairy industry on social media, many of them have never embraced milk. Last year, members of Generation Z bought 20 percent less milk than the national average, according to the consumer market research company Circana.
Reclaiming ‘milk’s mojo’“Nobody drinks regular milk on purpose nowadays,” said Masani Bailey, 30, who created a nostalgic deep dive into the celebrity-driven “Got Milk?” campaign from the 1990s and early 2000s for her TikTok account, @cultureunfiltered.
“We have to reclaim milk’s mojo,” said Yin Woon Rani, the chief executive of the Milk Processor Education Program, a marketing and education arm of the dairy industry based in Washington, DC.
The campaign takes several forms. Although the science about the health benefits and drawbacks of milk is not settled, some studies have shown that chocolate milk contains basic electrolytes and a precise ratio of carbohydrates to protein that can help muscles recover after workouts. One strategy involves showing athletes such as Zapata that milk is a good sports drink (though the Gonna Need Milk people thought she was more of a milk fan when they signed her up).
Milk processors are betting that supporting women and girls who run, and promoting gender equity in sports — with plenty of post-race chocolate milk — will change some minds. For every woman who joins #TeamMilk, the milk processors will make a donation to Girls on the Run, a national nonprofit sports organization.
Milk marketers have also tapped Olympic medalists, women who play football, and other sports influencers who swim, climb, or play street soccer.
“We sometimes refer to milk as the OG sports drink, powering athletes for 10,000 years,” Rani said.
At the other end of the activity spectrum, the industry is making a play for gamers. Milk processors declared milk the official “performance beverage” at last year’s TwitchCon gaming convention in San Diego. Dairy Management Inc., a trade organization, hired gaming superstars Preston Arsement and Jimmy Donaldson (known to his 139 million YouTube subscribers as Mr Beast) to introduce seven new cows to Minecraft. The two streaming celebrities heaped love on the nation’s dairy farmers and explained sustainable dairy-farming practices.
From millennials to Gen Z-ersSome milk marketers have created Shark Tank-like contests that encourage small food entrepreneurs to invent dairy-based products aimed directly at Gen Z. One winner was Spylt, a caffeinated chocolate milk whose tagline is “Chill it. Then chug it!”
All this is not to say that young people do not eat plenty of cheese, yogurt, and ice cream.
The decline has been happening for decades. Americans’ annual milk consumption peaked at 45 gallons per person in 1945, according to the US Department of Agriculture. It fell to about 23 gallons in 2001, and by 2021 it was down to 16 gallons.
Although Generation Z is the target, millennials laid the groundwork for milk’s identity crisis, with their focus on health and wellness and demand for transparency in the food system.
“I feel like this is another punchline about us: Did millennials kill milk?” said Rebecca Kelley, 39, a content strategy consultant in Seattle.
She and her friends drink almond milk. “I do have some old millennial guilt because I know from a sustainability perspective almond milk is not great,” she said. But she also sneaks in a glass or two of whole milk with spaghetti or a tuna sandwich, despite judgy comments from friends. “For me, it’s a nostalgia play.”
Plant competitorsMilk has a tougher battle with Generation Z. Born between 1997 and 2012, it is the US’ most diverse generation ever. A bare majority are white, and 29 percent are immigrants or the children of immigrants. Many come from backgrounds in which lactose intolerance is common.
Some have turned to nut milks and other plant-based alternatives, whose sales are expected to grow by more than 9 percent a year through 2027, far faster than milk.
Alarmed by dwindling sales to Gen Z, the dairy industry is going all out to get younger Americans on the milk train. (Photos: NYTimes)
The dairy industry has long waged a battle to keep plant-based alternatives from using the word milk. The Food and Drug Administration in February made it clear that the war is probably over, issuing a draft ruling that drinks made from oats, almonds, or other plants can be called milk. The agency did hand dairy producers a small win, recommending that packaging for plant-based drinks make clear the key nutritional differences between their products and cow’s milk.
But dairy milk is still a much bigger player. In the year that ended in November, milk sales were almost $15.7 billion, compared with $2.4 billion for alternative milks.
Predicting a milk comebackIn the end, milk’s ace in the hole might not be marathons, YouTube videos, or organic farming. The cultural churn that makes something a star one day and destroys it the next could be the saving grace.
Sherry Ning, a writer in Toronto, was only half-joking when she recently tweeted, “The next counterrevolution is the return of whole milk.”
Her theory is akin to what Emily Sundberg suggested two years ago in a New York magazine article arguing that whole milk was making a comeback.
The dairy milk dip coincided with the rise of wellness culture and what Ning called the influence of tech-bro culture, with its overengineered, health-optimized lifestyle that demonized dairy.
Whole milk, Ning said, might be the antidote, riding a wave of neo-traditionalism among some members of Gen Z who are embracing a more down-to-earth ethos, centered on nature and regenerative farming. Call it milkcore?
“The return of cow’s milk is kind of the cultural zeitgeist saying, ‘Screw tech. This is too fast and science is going too far,’” she said. “Just go back to normal and stop engineering the way we live.”
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The Milk Processor Education Program signed her to its 26.2 project, an ambitious effort to provide training, gear, advice, and other support to every woman who runs a marathon in the US this year. In March, Zapata’s face lit up a giant Times Square billboard. She starred in her own video. Her portrait is one of several anchoring the Gonna Need Milk website.
“We sometimes refer to milk as the OG sports drink, powering athletes for 10,000 years.”There is only one problem: Zapata would rather drink oat milk.
“Dairy milk is good,” she explained in an interview, “but I feel like realistically it’s unhealthy”.
She grew up hearing that dairy products were not good for her sports-induced asthma. Then her sister became a vegan and made a strong case against them. But Zapata is dedicated to getting women with different shapes and from different cultures to embrace running, so she joined #TeamMilk.
“I feel like that’s more important than whether milk is good for you,” she said.
Yvonne Zapata, who trains in Central Park, an ambassador for a milk producers’ campaign called 26.2 that aims to offer support to every woman running a marathon in the US this year.
Zapata is part of the Not Milk generation, teenagers and young adults who grew up ordering milk alternatives at coffee shops and toting water bottles everywhere. Turned off by the no-fat and low-fat milks served at school, worried about climate change, and steeped in the increasing skepticism toward the dairy industry on social media, many of them have never embraced milk. Last year, members of Generation Z bought 20 percent less milk than the national average, according to the consumer market research company Circana.
Reclaiming ‘milk’s mojo’“Nobody drinks regular milk on purpose nowadays,” said Masani Bailey, 30, who created a nostalgic deep dive into the celebrity-driven “Got Milk?” campaign from the 1990s and early 2000s for her TikTok account, @cultureunfiltered.
Although Generation Z is the target, millennials laid the groundwork for milk’s identity crisis, with their focus on health and wellness and demand for transparency in the food system.The dairy industry is not banking on nostalgia to save the day. It has embarked on a full-frontal marketing assault intended to do what the “Got Milk?” mustaches on celebrities like Taylor Swift and Dennis Rodman did for previous generations.
“We have to reclaim milk’s mojo,” said Yin Woon Rani, the chief executive of the Milk Processor Education Program, a marketing and education arm of the dairy industry based in Washington, DC.
The campaign takes several forms. Although the science about the health benefits and drawbacks of milk is not settled, some studies have shown that chocolate milk contains basic electrolytes and a precise ratio of carbohydrates to protein that can help muscles recover after workouts. One strategy involves showing athletes such as Zapata that milk is a good sports drink (though the Gonna Need Milk people thought she was more of a milk fan when they signed her up).
Milk processors are betting that supporting women and girls who run, and promoting gender equity in sports — with plenty of post-race chocolate milk — will change some minds. For every woman who joins #TeamMilk, the milk processors will make a donation to Girls on the Run, a national nonprofit sports organization.
Milk marketers have also tapped Olympic medalists, women who play football, and other sports influencers who swim, climb, or play street soccer.
“We sometimes refer to milk as the OG sports drink, powering athletes for 10,000 years,” Rani said.
At the other end of the activity spectrum, the industry is making a play for gamers. Milk processors declared milk the official “performance beverage” at last year’s TwitchCon gaming convention in San Diego. Dairy Management Inc., a trade organization, hired gaming superstars Preston Arsement and Jimmy Donaldson (known to his 139 million YouTube subscribers as Mr Beast) to introduce seven new cows to Minecraft. The two streaming celebrities heaped love on the nation’s dairy farmers and explained sustainable dairy-farming practices.
From millennials to Gen Z-ersSome milk marketers have created Shark Tank-like contests that encourage small food entrepreneurs to invent dairy-based products aimed directly at Gen Z. One winner was Spylt, a caffeinated chocolate milk whose tagline is “Chill it. Then chug it!”
All this is not to say that young people do not eat plenty of cheese, yogurt, and ice cream.
“The return of cow’s milk is kind of the cultural zeitgeist saying, ‘Screw tech. This is too fast and science is going too far. Just go back to normal and stop engineering the way we live.”“They’re not abandoning dairy,” said John Crawford, a dairy analyst for Circana. “But they certainly are walking away from traditional dairy milk.”
The decline has been happening for decades. Americans’ annual milk consumption peaked at 45 gallons per person in 1945, according to the US Department of Agriculture. It fell to about 23 gallons in 2001, and by 2021 it was down to 16 gallons.
Although Generation Z is the target, millennials laid the groundwork for milk’s identity crisis, with their focus on health and wellness and demand for transparency in the food system.
“I feel like this is another punchline about us: Did millennials kill milk?” said Rebecca Kelley, 39, a content strategy consultant in Seattle.
She and her friends drink almond milk. “I do have some old millennial guilt because I know from a sustainability perspective almond milk is not great,” she said. But she also sneaks in a glass or two of whole milk with spaghetti or a tuna sandwich, despite judgy comments from friends. “For me, it’s a nostalgia play.”
Plant competitorsMilk has a tougher battle with Generation Z. Born between 1997 and 2012, it is the US’ most diverse generation ever. A bare majority are white, and 29 percent are immigrants or the children of immigrants. Many come from backgrounds in which lactose intolerance is common.
Some have turned to nut milks and other plant-based alternatives, whose sales are expected to grow by more than 9 percent a year through 2027, far faster than milk.
Alarmed by dwindling sales to Gen Z, the dairy industry is going all out to get younger Americans on the milk train. (Photos: NYTimes)
The dairy industry has long waged a battle to keep plant-based alternatives from using the word milk. The Food and Drug Administration in February made it clear that the war is probably over, issuing a draft ruling that drinks made from oats, almonds, or other plants can be called milk. The agency did hand dairy producers a small win, recommending that packaging for plant-based drinks make clear the key nutritional differences between their products and cow’s milk.
But dairy milk is still a much bigger player. In the year that ended in November, milk sales were almost $15.7 billion, compared with $2.4 billion for alternative milks.
Predicting a milk comebackIn the end, milk’s ace in the hole might not be marathons, YouTube videos, or organic farming. The cultural churn that makes something a star one day and destroys it the next could be the saving grace.
Sherry Ning, a writer in Toronto, was only half-joking when she recently tweeted, “The next counterrevolution is the return of whole milk.”
Her theory is akin to what Emily Sundberg suggested two years ago in a New York magazine article arguing that whole milk was making a comeback.
The dairy milk dip coincided with the rise of wellness culture and what Ning called the influence of tech-bro culture, with its overengineered, health-optimized lifestyle that demonized dairy.
Whole milk, Ning said, might be the antidote, riding a wave of neo-traditionalism among some members of Gen Z who are embracing a more down-to-earth ethos, centered on nature and regenerative farming. Call it milkcore?
“The return of cow’s milk is kind of the cultural zeitgeist saying, ‘Screw tech. This is too fast and science is going too far,’” she said. “Just go back to normal and stop engineering the way we live.”
Read more Trending
Jordan News
