‘Got Milk?’ Print Touts Health Benefits

The serious side of Goodby, Silverstein & Partners’ “Got Milk?” effort is making its first major push into print, showing real human bones to send the message that milk helps prevent osteoporosis and fractures.

In one execution for the California Milk Processors Board, pelvic bones form what look like butterflies; copy reads: “Because it’s not so beautiful that half of all women over 50 suffer an osteoporotic fracture.” In another ad, an arm and elbow bone are positioned like an exclamation mark above the line, “Over the past 30 years, forearm fractures in young people have increased an alarming 42 percent.”

“It’s an unexpected use of bones,” said Jeff Manning, executive director of the CMPB. “It’s not an X-ray. But the use of the bones is a perfect expression of the strategy.”

The exclamation-mark ad launches June 28 in People and Newsweek. The butterflies execution will appear in August issues of monthlies including Better Homes & Gardens and Fitness.

A third ad, targeting men, broke in May. It shows a backbone twisted into a question mark and asks, “Did you know that men over 50 suffer from osteoporosis more than prostate cancer?”

Art director Jack Woodworth and copywriter Mike Sweeney created the series, part of the “Strength Comes From Within” campaign, which broke in February 2003.

Focus groups found the ads “impactful,” said Martha Jurzynski, account manager at Omnicom’s Goodby in San Francisco. “They weren’t aware of these facts—it was newsworthy to them. And to see them along with these beautiful ads, that was the most striking thing.”

CMPB has increased the rotation of the two “Strength Comes From Within” commercials released last year. A new spot in the campaign, set to launch in late August, shows a skeleton emerging from a woman’s body to grab a glass of milk.