For our contextual research for our re:master project, we were asked to write a paragraph on a topic of art direction. I decided to write my paragraph on the original “Got Milk?” advert.

The “Got Milk?” advert, made in 1993 by Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, was initially made because milk sales were dropping 4% every year in California. The advert consists of a guy, who’s surrounded by everything to do with the duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, eating sandwich and listening to the radio when the radio hosts asks a question for $10,000 and happens to ring the guys phone for the answer. The guy gives the right answer but the radio host can’t understand him as the guys mouth is full of sandwich. The guy tries to pour himself a glass of milk to clear his mouth but finds that he’s run out of milk. Unfortunately he runs out of time to answer the question properly and loses out on winning $10,000. The advert then ends with a black screen with the words “got milk?” in white.

They found it challenging to create an advert for milk because unlike brands like Snapple, who could introduce new bottles or new flavours, they were trying to sell gallons of milk which hadn’t changed in years. The intent of the advert was to just make sure people didn’t run out of milk which either meant to buy more of it or buy it before it goes off or sour. When Goodby initially suggested “Got Milk?” as the header for the advert, he was told that it wasn’t grammatically correct, it should be “Do you have enough milk?” and that it was bad. I personally think it’s good as it’s short and gets to the point. In the end the header “Got Milk?” worked and it sparked a variety of rip off versions.

I found finding things out about this advert interesting as I had seen/heard of the different variations but had never actually seen or heard of the original advert or its origins.