The advertisers who made running out of milk part of American pop culture have reinvented themselves "mission impossible" style with its new "GET THE GLASS" commercial campaign. Set to launch on TV airwaves and the internet this week, the new work immerses consumers in a dark, heavily-fortressed fantasy world established to safeguard earth's last glass of milk.
"We've created a place with only one glass of milk, metaphorically speaking," says California Milk Processor Board (CMPB) Executive Director Steve James. "We want people to imagine what it would be like if milk really was that scarce and how that would change the way we think about it."
GET THE GLASS is an ambitious undertaking and a significant departure for the GOT MILK? folks, known most recently for ads depicting aliens in search of the ‘white wonder tonic.' GET THE GLASS consists of seven (7) TV commercials, including both :30 and 60-second spots, and a sophisticated online board game (www.gettheglass.com) that allows consumers to take the challenge set out in the commercials.
Online GET THE GLASS closely resembles a traditional board game with virtual "spaces" and mouse- maneuvered "dice." While the look and feel of the game hearkens back to a time when families played board games together around the fire, this game is decidedly contemporary employing complex, flash animation graphics.
When users agree to play, the cover of a retro looking board game flies off and an incredibly detailed, multi-dimensional board unfolds. Game pieces then spring to life and assemble on the board, as a camera shifts from a bird's-eye view to swoop down to place players at the beginning of the game. Players at home feel they're actually in the game itself. Action and trivia-based challenges confront players at every turn as they work their way to "Fort Fridge" through five regions/levels. Each step of the way, players have to overcome physical handicaps caused by the lack of milk – brittle bones, weak muscles, insomnia, PMS and broken nails.
"Plus they have to avoid being sent to Milkatraz," continues James. "We've taken interactive advertising to a new level by imaginatively re-creating a world where milk is so scarce, it must be guarded and protected."
GET THE GLASS commercials entitled – ‘The Trailer,' ‘The Glass,' ‘The Window,' ‘The Gum,' ‘The Straw,' ‘The Sip,' and ‘The Case' – will launch in California in March and run until December 2007. They will also be offered to dairy boards for distribution across the country.
Developed by longtime CMPB advertising partners, San Francisco-based Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, GET THE GLASS aims to reposition milk as a precious commodity not to be taken for granted. In this campaign consumers get to see milk through the eyes of the ailing Adachi family, desperate for milk and its healing powers.
‘The Glass,' the first 60-second spot in the series, opens to a cold, frosted glass of milk enclosed in a refrigerator chamber, heavily watched by security cameras, guards and state-of-the-art robots in a maximum security compound. The Adachis, hiding inside a "disguised" plumbing service van, send-off their ten-year-old son to perform a "mission impossible" style feat. The spot then closes with the now ubiquitous GOT MILK? tagline.
"Without ever mentioning another beverage, this campaign is intensely competitive," stresses James.
Now in its fourteenth year, GOT MILK? has helped sell millions of gallons of milk and become an American icon. The dairy industry spends $150 million annually to support GOT MILK?, including use on those Milk Mustache ads. In addition, GOT MILK? is a hot property licensed on hundreds of products over the last decade.