• by Karl Greenberg , April 1, 2013

The California Milk Processor Board is extending its dream-themed campaign under its "Got Milk" umbrella. The somnolent campaign continues the idea that since milk has tryptophan, it is a good natural sleep aid if you have a glass before hitting the sack. 

The effort, created by San Francisco-based Goodby, Silverstein and Partners and directed by agency head Jeff Goodby himself, is the latest humorous anti-insomnia campaign (the sleep-theme actually launched with a Hispanic market push comprising ads showing wild, chromatic dreams that are part of a good sleep night.)

Unlike the Hispanic campaign, which ended with a sleep-enhanced good night's sleep, the new English-language ads show what happens when you don’t drink milk before bedtime. The new raft of 30-second television spots shows the beginnings of archetypal great dreams that are truncated because milk wasn’t part of the bedtime ritual. In one, a guy has that great dream where you take off and fly around -- except in this one, the dream ends when the guy plummets. 

In another there's a dream sequence in a Grecian swimming pool at night. A beautiful woman dressed in a white bathing suit appears, and we hear her inner thoughts (in Italian) beckoning the dreamer to follow her into the pool. In the pool, the woman swims about like one of those synchronized swimmers while giving the dreamer “come hither” looks. As the woman begins to surface she is replaced by a tall, bald man dressed in the woman’s bathing suit. He says, “What? Don’t like interrupted dreams? There might just be a drink for that.” The spot cuts to salsa music playing over a shot of a glass of milk sitting in a moonlit kitchen. 

On April 22, the campaign will continue with out-of-home including digital bus shelters in San Francisco showing people yawning and ending with a call to action to phone a “sleep hotline” at 1-855-MILK-ZZZ. People who make the call can choose various sleep-inducing options: the "world’s most boring man" reciting the number pi; a lullaby; the chants of a meditating monk, among others.

The are also digital elements, including a Pandora program comprising radio ads that run in the evening. They delineate five dream scenarios. There will also be online banners that don't appear until after 8 p.m. on sites like Hulu, About.com and You Tube with a "It's time for a bedtime drink" message.