Purpose Analysis
Growing up in the 90s you couldn’t help but see the “Got Milk?” advertisements. They were on the sides of bus stops and the buses, they were on billboards, in newspapers, and even on TV. Digging deeper into why you saw the advertisements everywhere, or why they would advertise a product that you would think would be such a common grocery item. You find that “Overall, milk consumption has declined by almost a third over the past 40 years, from roughly 21.8 gallons per year in 1970 to 14.5 gallons in 2012. Baird 2015” Seeing a third of your business go away over 40 years, you can see why milk companies tried so hard to appeal to everyone to buy more milk.
The top of the advertisement says it all, “The height of fame”, it plays to the Ethos appeal. It is using the idea of fame to sell the product, in this case milk. It is using the instant recognition of the famous young actress to draw you in. They made many different ads, using many different famous people to draw people in, from 1993 to 2014, all under the catch phrase “Got milk?”. By seeing your favorite actor, actress, sports hero, or celebrity, you would pay attention and look at the advertisement. This is what draws the young people in to want to buy the product, or if they can’t buy the product, they ask their parents for the product. This is the most successful strategy. It takes something familiar, someone you have seen before to draw your attention. Many companies use this type of advertising.
As you continue to look at the advertisement, it talks about some apparent statistics: “About 15% of your height is added during your teens and the calcium in milk can help.”. This is drawing on the Logos appeal, by throwing some data out there and making people think that by drinking milk in their teens, that it will help them grow to be tall and strong. It is talking to the parents of teens or youth. It tries to correlate the two together, the fact that 15% of a person’s height is typically gained during their teen years, and that calcium helps. They are trying to have you think that calcium makes people grow. Knowing that most adults know that milk contains calcium.
Lastly, they also use a Pathos appeal, by appealing to young people wanting to be famous. A lot of young people grow up with the dream of becoming famous, a famous movie star, a sports athlete, or maybe even President. Either way, the advertisement uses the closing sentence in the text, “Who knows, maybe one day you’ll see your name in lights.”. It goes after that notion that you too can be like them by ‘if you buy and drink milk, you too could perhaps become a star one day’.
The advertisement catches your attention by displaying a familiar face, a face of someone famous. Now that they have your attention, they throw a fact out there, trying to prove the importance of their product. Finally, they set the hook by appealing to the persons desires to be like the person pictured. This is how people sell products. This was one of the most famous advertisements in the 90s and 2000s. Everyone around has seen a “Got Milk?” advertisement, and I bet you’ve even bought some milk!
Citations:
Rittenhouse, Lindsay. “California Milk Processor Board to Retire Long-Time AOR and Creator of 'Got Milk?'.” Adweek, Adweek, 11 Dec. 2017, https://www.adweek.com/agencies/california-milk-processor-board-to-retire-long-time-aor-and-creator-of-got-milk/.
Baird, Sarah. “How Cow's Milk Went from a Basic Beverage to a Dismissed Drink.” Eater, Eater, 1 May 2015, https://www.eater.com/drinks/2015/5/1/8518367/how-cows-milk-went-from-a-basic-beverage-to-a-dismissed-drink.
Paley, Rachel T. “R.I.P. 'Got Milk?' (1993-2014).” Yahoo!, Yahoo!, 25 Feb. 2014, https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/r-i-p-got-milk-1993-2014-77816453168.html.