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The battle between cow’s milk and alternative milk continues heating (frothing?) up.
Oatly just unveiled its newest campaign, in which it’s offering to pay for one out-of-home or print ad for any dairy company that agrees to reveal its climate footprint by answering the 70+ questions the oat-milk brand did before it added its footprint details to packaging.
The campaign is a response to recent marketing from the dairy industry (more specifically, the Milk Processor Education Program, or MilkPEP) which insists the only “real milk” is cow milk.
The spat comes as dairy-milk consumption continues to plummet. Even though the dairy-milk industry is still substantially larger than the alternative-milk sector, it’s in a decades-long decline as the latter continues to grow. Big Dairy is hoping marketing can help change some of that.
Beef in the milk industry: Last month, the New York Times reported that MilkPEP, a program funded by milk companies, was struggling to connect with Gen Z—including some of its own spokespeople. Marathoner Yvonne Zapata, who appeared on a Times Square billboard for MilkPEP, told the Times she prefers oat milk.
In what seems to be an attempt to connect with young people the way “Got Milk?” did with celebrities like Britney Spears and Taylor Swift in the ’90s and ’00s, MilkPEP has done paid sponsorships recently with celebrities like Emma Roberts for its “Gonna Need Milk” campaign. It also recently brought in Aubrey Plaza to create a parody ad for a fake milk alternative called “Wood Milk.”
In addition to dwindling milk-drinking numbers from Gen Z, some of the fervor from MilkPEP may also trace back to the FDA’s February decision to allow plant-based milks to actually call themselves milk and therefore have a harder time differentiating from their nondairy competitors.
Got not milk: But “Wood Milk” isn’t exactly seeing the same cultural reception as “Got Milk?” did. In fact, it seems to be doing the opposite of what the group intended, with people pointing out the impacts of the dairy industry on the environment, animal welfare, and workers’ rights. Oatly’s latest campaign, with its focus on the environmental impact specifically, is no different.
In the past, Oatly has received flack for including additive ingredients—something some brands in the industry have positioned themselves against. It has also had some of its ads banned in the UK due to “misleading” environmental claims. Still, alternative milks—including oat milk—require less land, water, and emissions to produce than cow milk on average.
Despite the dairy industry’s attempts to convince people that cow milk is the OG and therefore better, Bon Appétit pointed out that if it existed, “Gen Z probably would, in fact, want to try Wood Milk.”