Got Milk PMS commercials - the murky truth
Russell Eaton
"Got Milk" is the name of an advertising campaign referred to as a 'milk consumption campaign'. It is sponsored by the milk industry. Got Milk came out of the Californian Milk Process Board in 1993. It was created to increase milk consumption in the region and has now grown into an international programme.
In March 2004 the Got Milk campaign spread to the United Kingdom. In the USA, UK and other countries, milk sales have suffered in the face of the increase in soda drinks sales. The Got Milk campaign is an international attempt to stop this decline.
The 'got milk' ads typically show well known celebrities with a "milk moustache" and exhort you to drink more milk for the sake of your health. The milk moustache ads make promises of strong bones, lower blood pressure and better sports performance. They are displayed just about everywhere, providing millions of people with what unfortunately has become a main source of nutritional information.
But rather than helping, these ads are miss-educating and causing confusion among consumers according to the PCRM (U.S. Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine).
Some Got Milk commercials make reference to PMS in women, implying that the consumption of dairy milk is somehow helpful in alleviating Pre-Menstrual Symptoms. This is, of course, complete nonsense. If anything, dairy milk makes you feel bloated and less healthy and can therefore aggravate PMS.
The Got Milk PMS ads were prompted by rsearch carried out by Dr. Elizabeth Bertone-Johnson of the University of Massachusetts (published in the Archives of Internal Medicine). The research showed a "significantly lower risk of developing PMS in women with intakes of vitamin D and calcium from food sources."
But it does not follow that dairy milk is a good source of vitamin D and calcium. On the contrary, milk is a bad source of these nutrients, and there is no research showing that milk alleviates PMS.
Many of the milk moustache ads that make health claims are misleading and false, and go against federal advertising guidelines, according to a PCRM petition filed in July 2000 with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
In its petition, PCRM requested an investigation of the Got Milk advertisements, claiming them to be scientifically unsubstantiated, purposefully deceptive, and harmful advertising. PCRM's petition has been referred by the Federal Trade Commission for investigation because it is actually the USDA that is promulgating these ads (with tax payer's money) on behalf of the private dairy industry.
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