Those Happy, California Cows who have been promoting Californian cheese, will now be promoting California milk. Starting this month, a $40 million national advertising campaign promoting milk produced by California dairies will be launched.
The campaign, to begin at the end of September, includes placing a seal reading “Real California Milk” on some containers of milk, yogurt, butter and ice cream produced with California milk.
The effort by the California Milk Advisory Board is an extension of the 7-year-old Happy Cows campaign, created by the Los Angeles ad agency Deutsch. It grew out of market research that found that 7 out of 10 Californians said they prefer to purchase locally produced milk, according the advisory board.
About 20 percent of milk used in California for milk and dairy products comes from out of state, according to the board, an instrument of the California Department of Food and Agriculture that promotes California dairy products. Dairy industry sources said the campaign is an attempt to minimize imports.
California consumers will begin seeing the “Real California Milk” seal in grocery stores in October. To date, dairy processors participating include Dean Foods (Alta Dena and Berkeley Farms dairies in California), Heartland Farms, Producers Dairy, Foster Farms, Ralphs and California Dairies Inc., a cooperative that produces Challenge Butter.