Using Multiple Celebs & the Milk Mustache Campaign

Everyone can recall the milk mustache ads promoting the consumption of milk. Singers, actors, comedians, and athletes were all featured in the ads. What made the campaign so unique was that it a largely diverse amount of celebrities.

After noticing a significant decline in the consumption of milk, the marketing goal of the campaign was to change consumers attitudes toward milk and increase public awareness of its nutrition facts.

What made this campaign so successful? Was it the use of celebrities, the number of celebrities, or was it the specific marketing strategy? There's no doubt that the campaign wouldn't have been successful if any regular Joe was featured in the ads. To change the people's perception of milk, they had to see public figures with qualities that consumers emulated. The first milk mustache ads were targeted toward females, and used celebs like Christie Brinkley and Kate Moss. They then expanded their ads to include male celebrities, child celebrities, allowing the advertisers to widen its appeal to a much more diverse audience. Men were reached by using celebrities like Spike Lee and Matthew Fox. The campaign even appealed to teens when Britney Spears was featured wearing a milk mustache and the growth and development benefits of milk.


However, using a large number of celebrities is not always beneficial or necessary. The reason this particular campaign was so successful utilizing a multi-celebrity endorsement strategy was because the it was aimed at very large, diverse audience. Many products have a specific target audience that fits into a certain demographic, certain age group, gender, lifestyle, etc. The milk campaign needed to reach both men and women, all age groups, all lifestyles, etc. It was necessary to mix up the advertising message and target each of them to different audience members.

In addition, employing a number of celebrities can also help the advertiser build a sense of consensus and avoid audience boredom. It is important for the marketer to carefully manage the choice of celebrity and how it fits with the product. The goal is to appeal to the intended segments without confusing audience's about the product or the brand image (Chung-kue,McDonald).













Works Cited

Chung-kue Hsu, Daniella McDonald, (2002) "An examination on multiple celebrity endorsers in advertising", Journal of Product & Brand Management, Vol. 11 Iss: 1, pp.19 - 29