Milk is great. I love milk. Tastes wonderful. Mix in a bit of chocolate Slimfast in the morning or after a workout. But, see, Gen Z apparently has a problem with milk, and it was important enough for the NY Times to write an article instead of investigating politicians and government for wrongdoing (no paywall at Yahoo News)
Got Milk? Not This Generation.
To the marketers trying to reboot milk as a sports drink for Generation Z, Yvonne Zapata seemed like the perfect ambassador. An exuberant 24-year-old marathoner from Brooklyn, New York, she describes herself as a proud Latina runner. Her nickname is Miss Outside.
The Milk Processor Education Program signed her to its 26.2 project, an ambitious effort to provide training, gear, advice and other support to every woman who runs a marathon in the United States this year. In March, Zapata’s face lit up a giant Times Square billboard. She starred in her own video. Her portrait is one of several anchoring the Gonna Need Milk website.
There is only one problem: Zapata would rather drink oat milk. (snip)
Zapata is part of the Not Milk generation, teenagers and young adults who grew up ordering milk alternatives at coffee shops and toting water bottles everywhere. Turned off by the no-fat and low-fat milks served at school, worried about climate change and steeped in the increasing skepticism toward the dairy industry on social media, many of them have never embraced milk. Last year, members of Generation Z bought 20% less milk than the national average, according to the consumer market research company Circana.
It’s the Evil cows!
Anyhow
The campaign takes several forms. Although the science about the health benefits and drawbacks of milk isn’t settled, some studies have shown that chocolate milk contains basic electrolytes and a precise ratio of carbohydrates to protein that can help muscles recover after workouts. One strategy involves showing athletes such as Zapata that milk is a good sports drink (though the Gonna Need Milk people thought she was more of a milk fan when they signed her up).
And just tastes wonderful after a workout.
“I feel like this is another punchline about us: Did millennials kill milk?” said Rebecca Kelley, 39, a content strategy consultant in Seattle.
She and her friends drink almond milk. “I do have some old millennial guilt because I know from a sustainability perspective almond milk is not great,” she said. But she also sneaks in a glass or two of whole milk with spaghetti or a tuna sandwich, despite judgy comments from friends. “For me, it’s a nostalgia play.”
Almond milk and all those alternatives tend to be worse for the actual environment, as opposed to the climate crisis scam, being incredibly water intensive, for one thing.
But, hey, if they don’t want to drink milk, more for me.
Some young people don’t like milk because they didn’t grow up with it as a dinner-table staple. The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 removed whole or 2% milk from schools, and required that any flavored milk be nonfat. This led to a genre of social media posts complaining that school milk was disgusting. The Department of Agriculture in 2018 allowed 1% chocolate or strawberry milk back into schools.
Good job, Michelle Obama and Democrats.
Read: Gen Z Opts Out Of Drinking Milk »