Got Milk PMS commercials - the murky truth

“Got Milk” is the name of an advertising campaign referred to as a ‘milk consumption campaign’. It is sponsored by the milk industry. Got Milk came out of the Californian Milk Process Board in 1993. It was created to increase milk consumption in the region and has now grown into an international programme.

In March 2004 the Got Milk campaign spread to the United Kingdom. In the USA, UK and other countries, milk sales have suffered in the face of the increase in soda drinks sales. The Got Milk campaign is an international attempt to stop this decline.

The ‘got milk’ ads typically show well known celebrities with a “milk moustache” and exhort you to drink more milk for the sake of your health. The milk moustache ads make promises of strong bones, lower blood pressure and better sports performance. They are displayed just about everywhere, providing millions of people with what unfortunately has become a main source of nutritional information.

But instead of helping, these ads are confusing and miss-educating consumers according to the PCRM (Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, USA).

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 commercials were prompted by a study carried out by Dr. Elizabeth Bertone-Johnson of the University of Massachusetts and published in the Archives of Internal Medicine. This study showed a “significantly lower risk of developing PMS in women with intakes of vitamin D and calcium from food sources.”

But it certainly does not follow that cow’s milk is a good source of vitamin D and calcium. In fact, milk is a poor source of these nutrients, and there is no research showing that milk can alleviate 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).

PCRM claimed in its petition that an investigation of milk moustache ads showed them to be scientifically purposefully deceptive, unsubstantiated, 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 promoting these ads on behalf of the private dairy industry.