Got Milk PMS commercials - the murky truth
March 31, 2008
The term “Got Milk” refers to an advertising campaign that aggressively promotes milk consumption. It is paid for by the USA milk industry. Got Milk came out of the Californian Milk Process Board in 1993. It was created to increase milk consumption in the Californian region, but it has now grown into an international advertising and promotion program.
In March 2004 the Got Milk campaign was launched in the United Kingdom. In the UK like the US, milk consumption has suffered at the hands of the increase in soda drinks. The move into the UK and other countries is an attempt to reverse the process.
Typically, the ‘got milk’ ads show celebrities with a “milk moustache” and exhort you to drink milk to ensure good health. With promises of strong bones, lower blood pressure, and better sports performance, these milk moustache ads are everywhere, providing millions of people with what unfortunately has become a primary source of nutrition 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).
Unfortunately, some Got Milk commercials refer to Pre-Menstrual Symptoms in women, thus implying that the consumption of dairy milk is somehow helpful in alleviating PMS. Any competent doctor will tell you that this is complete nonsense. If anything, dairy milk makes a person feel bloated, lethargic and less healthy and can therefore aggravate the symptoms of 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 milk moustache ads, holding them to be scientifically unsubstantiated, purposefully deceptive, and harmful advertising. PCRM’s petition has been referred by the FTC to the USDA for investigation because-believe it or not-it is actually the USDA that is promulgating these ads on behalf of the private dairy industry.
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