If you were a celebrity in the ’90s and early 2000s and you didn’t have your own “Got Milk?” moustache ad, were you really even famous? The ads were ubiquitous and featured the biggest names of the era, including Britney Spears, the Simpsons, and Jonathan Taylor Thomas (naturally). The ad campaign, which was initially for California Milk Processor Board before it was licensed by the Milk Processor Education Program and went national, was mostly retired in 2014.
In homage to that iconic campaign, Wavemaker Canada and Carl’s Social Club collaborated on the integrated campaign, “Plant-based has never tasted so good” to promote Silk Nextmilk, Silk Canada’s plant-based marquee beverage. The campaign involves five diverse influencers, along with Chris Boucher of the Toronto Raptors, getting their own Silk ‘staches.
The campaign is meant to target what Sandra Cardoso, managing director, client leadership at Wavemaker, calls “the Non-Rejectors:” people, aged 18 to 100 (or 28% of the population) who are open to trying plant-based milk, but worry it will taste too different from what they are used to, or they won’t know how to incorporate it into their cooking. “The goal was to target a broad base of consumers who want to make the right choices for their health and the environment, but change feels risky and they aren’t willing to give up good taste,” Cardoso says.
“We’ve injected a dose of modernity into the traditional ads that people are used to seeing to reflect Silk Nextmilk and to adapt the production to today’s reality,” explains Jean-François Morin, vice-president, Creative at Carl Social Club in a statement. “The team chose an inclusive cast that represents all Canadians. Despite their differences, all the actors sport a Silk Nextmilk moustache, a highly significant nod to the fact that Silk Nextmilk is a plant-based alternative to the beverage that we all love that we’ve consumed since our early childhood.”
The TV spot is bolstered by an out-of-home campaign in Toronto, featuring a diverse cast gathered around the Silk Nextmilk beverage. “The integrated media strategy was to build awareness and drive engagement and trial with a mix of Linear TV, Online Video, Connected TV, Paid Social and large-impact OOH, which included Wilpostings and Murals in Toronto,” adds Cordosa.
Additionally, influencers David Rocco, Varda Etienne, Ania Boniecka, Etienne Boulay and Krista London created Nextmilk-inspired content on their feeds. Plus, a distribution event was held in the streets of Toronto, led by 360 l’Agence, that further highlighted the connection between this campaign and the “Got Milk” one of yore. But while those ads mostly touted how dairy milk was a good source of calcium, this campaign is meant to help Canadians get more plants in their diet.
“With Silk Nextmilk, we wanted to offer a product that would enable Canadians to incorporate more plants into their diet without making a big change in their habits, because the taste and texture are very similar to what they’re used to. The campaign aimed to show that this is a beverage for everyone, whatever your age, food preference or lifestyle,” says Fiona O’Brien, director of marketing, plant based food and beverages at Danone Canada.
