'Happy Cow' Ads Expand To Include Californian Milk Seal

New, expanded ads from the California Milk Advisory Board (CMAB) are debuting this month to support the new Real California Milk seal, joining the Real California Cheese seal.

The ads, which broke Monday, will air on cable and network and will close with a scene depicting the broad range of dairy products produced in California and a new tagline: "Great milk comes from Happy Cows. Happy Cows come from California. Make sure it's made with Real California Milk." The CMAB says ads will target women 25-54 during the day, a range of local news programs purchased as a packet and on cable programs that reach women, particularly food programs.

Michael Freeman, VP/advertising, says the other half of the schedule is a broadcast network mix "rich in prime. We buy opportunistically, when pricing is favorable. We just bought a package on ABC, new season premiers. We buy high-visibility programs when we can."

California is the nation's leading milk producer and also produces more butter, ice cream, yogurt and nonfat dry milk than any other state, says the board. The state is the second-largest producer of cheese, which is available nationally under the Real California Cheese seal.

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In one of the new spots, "Meditation," Happy Cows Janice and Diane come upon a meditating duck. They tell him his technique is backwards and that he needs to reverse his chant to "moo" and not "omm." In the second spot, "Bob," Bob the bull tries speaking French in order to impress the Happy Cows. He is taken aback when he learns that the multi-talented Happy Cows are fluent in French and see right through him.

Since their introduction in late 2000, the popular Happy Cows commercials have won numerous advertising awards and have help increase visibility for California cheeses across the country. The CMAB will continue to promote Real California Cheese, and the cheese seal will continue to appear in advertising.

Freeman says the commercials are so popular that CMAB has sold 1,000 DVDs of the whole series via RealCaliforniaMilk.com.

"We were skeptical at first that people would care where the milk came from [that made the cheese]," he says. "But lo and behold, we found out that California has quite a lot of added value. People associate California with great wine, almonds, avocados, fruit and, now, cheese. The idea that milk would be from California is perfectly appealing. We discovered that the seal would add a lot of value to what otherwise is a commodity product."

Freeman says the board conducts online surveys of 600 women every quarter to track national awareness. "Total awareness of the campaign is 79% nationally," he says.

"This campaign is working well for the industry," he says. "It's smarter than it looks. The cows enabled us to create a humanness. It's creating an emotional connection for our products."

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