Milk ads without mustaches
This archive collects ads with a milk mustache. The ads on this page do not have one, so they are kept apart and are not counted in any of the totals.
They are here because they are the same story. The same two organizations made them, often in the same years and the same magazines. If you are working out who made what and when, you need them.
There are three kinds.
The California got milk? campaign. Started in 1993, never used a mustache once, and still runs today. This is where the tagline came from.
MilkPEP after 2014. The national board dropped the mustache in January 2014 and has run other campaigns since: Milk Life, Protein Fight Club, and more recent work with athletes and comedians.
Other dairy groups. Milk advertising from organizations that are neither of the two above.
The got milk? campaign
The California Milk Processor Board launched got milk? in 1993 through the agency Goodby, Silverstein & Partners. It has never used a milk mustache. This is the campaign the mustache ads borrowed their tagline from, and it is a different thing entirely.
The idea came out of a focus group. Asked when they thought about milk, someone said the only time was when they had run out of it. Jeff Goodby wrote two words in response. Inside the agency the line was nearly rejected as lazy and grammatically wrong.
Everything that followed was built on that. Put someone in front of cookies or cereal or a peanut butter sandwich, then take the milk away. The first commercial, Aaron Burr, aired on 29 October 1993, directed by Michael Bay, with Sean Whalen as a historian who cannot answer a radio phone-in because his mouth is full and there is no milk in the house. Later spots sent a man to hell to find endless cookies and nothing but empty cartons, and put an airline pilot into a nosedive to reach a bottle on the drinks trolley. The print ads did the same: food with a bite out of it, cats and children demanding milk. No celebrities. The voice asking the question in most of the national commercials was Denny Delk.
It has now outlasted the mustache campaign by more than a decade. USA Today readers voted Aaron Burr the best ad of all time in 2002. In 2005 Tagline Guru ranked got milk? the most influential tagline since 1948, and the board published a poster called got ripped off? collecting its hundred favourite parodies of its own line.
California got milk? ads
Not every got milk? execution used the mustache. The original California work — including the 1993 “Aaron Burr” TV spot — never relied on the white upper lip at all; its humor came from the panic of running out of milk at the worst moment. This section documents that non-mustache strand of the campaign.
got milk? × Milk Bar
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Get Real Inc. — Desi Banks
No mustache · documented
Octopus, ghosts, rainbows and hot dogs
No mustache · documented
got milk? — California Milk Processor Board
No mustache · documented
Aaron Burr — launch commercial
No mustache · documented
Mr. Miller / the wheelbarrow
No mustache · documented
The Science of Imitation Milk
No mustache · documented
got milk? licensed kitchenware advertising
No mustache · documentedAaron Burr — 30th anniversary revival
No mustache · documented
got milk? — the cookies-in-hell commercial
got milk? — the airline pilot commercial
got ripped off? — the board’s own parody poster
got milk? — “Mysterious Cow Abductions” Weekly World News series
Exact issues knownMilkPEP after 2014
Milk Life × Team USA
No mustache · documented
The Great American Milk Drive
No mustache · documented
Milk, the Official Drink of Halloween
No mustache · documented
Milk Life — launch campaign
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Milk Life
No mustache · documented
Protein Fight Club
No mustache · documented
Refuel | got chocolate milk?
No mustache · documented
Gonna Need Milk
No mustache · documented
Every Woman’s Marathon
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The Milk Cup
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OK2Milk — Queen Latifah
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The GLP-1 Milk Gallon by Lord Disick
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Skylar Diggins-Smith protein puffer
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Dairy Diaries — Vanessa Bayer
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Sad Final Boss
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Milk advertising from organizations other than CMPB and MilkPEP that carries no mustache.
Marvel / Dairy Farmers of America — The Blue Bounder
Danell Leyva — Milk Life 'Eight grams of protein. 1,000 grams of silver.' (Rio 2016)
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Danell Leyva — Milk Life 'Raise the bar with 8g of natural protein.'
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Milk Life — 'What 8 grams of protein looks like when you're breaking the laws of physics.' (breakdancer)
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Milk Life — 'What 8 grams of protein looks like when you're playing above the rim.' (basketball)
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Milk Life — 'What 8 grams of protein looks like when you unleash your inner rock star.' (guitarist)
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Milk Life — 'What 8 grams of protein looks like when you decide water wings are for kids.' (pool)
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Milk Life — 'What 8 grams of protein looks like when you bring justice to the living room.' (superhero boy)
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Milk Life — 'Big protein. Big value. Win win.' (value message, superhero boy)
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Milk Life — 'You see protein. They see "Yum!"' (Milk + Breakfast, bunny oatmeal)
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Milk Life — 'Fall for Wholesome' (Farm to Glass / Real Milk Farm Fresh)
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Milk Life — 'Made by Nature. Served with Love.' (Farm to Glass / Real Milk Farm Fresh)
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Milk Life — 'Milk has 8 grams of high-quality protein. just living life.and milking it.' (basketball)
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Milk Life — 'Milk has 8 grams of high-quality protein. just living life.and milking it.' (garage band / lead guitarist)
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Built With Chocolate Milk — Tyler Clary (USA Swimming)
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Built With Chocolate Milk — Jessica Hardy (USA Swimming)
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Built With Chocolate Milk — Sloane Stephens 'Bounce Back'
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Built With Chocolate Milk — Kelley O'Hara 'World Class Finish'
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Built With Chocolate Milk — Kevin Love 'Reboundability'
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Built With Chocolate Milk — Klay Thompson 'Ideal 3-Pointer'
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got chocolate milk? — Hines Ward 'my After' (IRONMAN)
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Carmelo Anthony — got chocolate milk? 'my After'
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Mirinda Carfrae — got chocolate milk? 'my After' (IRONMAN)
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Mirinda Carfrae — got chocolate milk? 'my After' (stay toned)
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Chris Lieto — got chocolate milk? 'my After'
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Sarah Reinertsen — got chocolate milk? ‘my After’
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USA Swimming — got chocolate milk? ‘our After’
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Mat Hoffman — got chocolate milk? 'Great taste. Strong bones.'
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The Peanuts / Charlie Brown — got chocolate milk? Halloween 'Your Trick. Their Treat.'
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Mirinda Carfrae — Built With Chocolate Milk 'Domination' (IRONMAN)
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Built With Chocolate Milk — Rock ’n’ Roll Seattle Marathon mustache-on-a-stick promo
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Craig Alexander — Built With Chocolate Milk ‘Determination’ (IRONMAN)
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got milk? — 'Raise Your Hand for Chocolate Milk' (5 Reasons Why)
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Healthy Weight with Dairy — “Watching your weight? Look in the fridge.”
No mustache · documented
“Host a Flavored Milk Sampling Event” — got milk? school sampling kit sell sheet
No mustache · documented
“drink milk for a change” — Body by Milk classroom poster
No mustache · documented
Derrick Johnson — “Milk Makes the Meal!” 3-A-Day NFL growth-chart poster (Chiefs)
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Deion Branch & Willie McGinest — “Have you had your 3-A-Day of Dairy today?” (Patriots, 2005)
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Brett Favre — “Have you had your 3 today?” 3-A-Day growth-chart poster (Packers, Copps)
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Jack Flaherty '#FLY / Teamwork in All Seasons' dairy growth-chart banner (Cardinals)
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Fred Bird '9 innings / 9 essential nutrients' Midwest Dairy growth-chart poster (Cardinals mascot)
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Chris Young 3-A-Day growth-chart poster (Arizona Diamondbacks)
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Miguel Montero 3-A-Day / Arizona Milk Producers growth-chart banner (Arizona Diamondbacks)
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Daniel Hudson 3-A-Day / Arizona Milk Producers growth-chart banner (Arizona Diamondbacks)
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Neil Smith 'milk drinker, all-pro sacker' Midland Dairy Council growth-chart poster (Chiefs)
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Tony Richardson 'Milk keeps Tony running back for more' 3-A-Day growth-chart poster (Chiefs)
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Tiki Barber 'Milk: The Power Behind The Play' 3-A-Day / NFL Youth Football poster (Giants)
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Got Milk? Bone Ad - version one
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U.S. Dairy Sustainability Award Winners — 2013
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