Rather than preaching the benefits of milk on behalf of the BC Dairy Foundation, the quirky campaign launched yesterday by DDB Canada’s Vancouver office focuses on the dire potential consequences of not drinking enough milk.
Working with its online and interactive division, Tribal DDB Canada, the agency created a three-year, media-neutral creative platform whose ultimate objective is to make milk more socially relevant to teens and young adults. So, explains DDB CD Dean Lee, ‘Each ad tells a story of a particular moment in the lives of some quirky characters and how milk could have changed it all.
‘Using humour, pathos and visual bizarreness, the delivery of the tagline ‘must drink more milk’ is the point of these twisted stories and delivers a surprise pay-off,’ Lee adds. ‘We didn’t want to show anything that you’d expect from milk advertising, yet the message is clear: If you want to be healthier, stronger, faster, you need to drink more milk.’
Featured in the campaign are 14 animated executions, which include six 30-second TV spots and eight online digital short films of various lengths. With media buys by OMD Vancouver, each execution will debut on a staggered schedule over the next three years, and will be featured on BC television, cinemas and a YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/milkvids, as well as the www.mustdrinkmoremilk.com microsite.
The TV spots end with a call to action for visitors to check out the YouTube channel to watch the edgier digital short films and to post their own milk videos. Monthly prizes will be awarded to the user-generated milk video that receives the most views. In January, grand prizes will be awarded to the recipient with the most creative user-generated video, as judged by a panel of experts, and to the recipient whose video receives the most views overall.
BCDF’s ‘must drink more milk’ platform will also target youth on the street and at high schools, colleges and universities with various events, contests, programs and promotions. DDB Vancouver developed four T-shirts with graphic design expressions of ‘must drink more milk moments’ for distribution at various events.
