Was changing the "Got Milk?" campaign a bad marketing decision?

The big announcement today was that Milk has decided to change their campaign slogan from "Got Milk?" to "Milk Life". While certainly not a life or death issue, it is an interesting topic to debate in the marketing world, trying to figure out if dropping such an iconic phrase is a good thing or not.

The "Got Milk?" campaign was first introduced in 1993. So a twenty plus year run on a tag line is a pretty one, but was the value of the campaign gone yet? They admit that the catchy phrase, often imitated has great recognition throughout the country and likely the world. But they wanted a new strategy and new approach.



I don't think it is a wrong decision to moooo-ve on (sorry, couldn't resist) from the old campaign. But personally, I believe once you establish something that becomes so much a part of pop culture you need to be very careful with change. Don't believe me, ask the creator of "New Coke" in the early 1980's.

When I think of iconic brands, I think of McDonald's and their golden arches, and the Ford Motor Company oval. Often times, I will use these two as examples with people I'm training. First, I ask them to draw the two logos. To this day, no one has asked me what they look like, which is a pretty good indication of how iconic they are. Then I ask them to recall an advertisement where those logos were altered. I seem to recall seeing a Santa hat on one of the arches once, but beyond that they are not messed with at all.

For the sake of the creative person left to manage the account now that the decision has been made to move to "Milk Life" for the tag line, I hope this is a huge success. I'm not sure it is a decision I would have endorsed, at least based on the limited information I have.

Here is the story from Advertising Age:  http://adage.com/article/news/milk-dropped-national-milk-industry-tactics/291819/

Pete Van Baalen is a dynamic marketing professional specializing in traditional and digital marketing platforms with over 25 years in media and marketing experience. From Central Indiana (Indianapolis), you can reach Pete at pete.vanbaalen@gmail.com.