New ad campaign pushes chocolate milk in schools / LJWorld.com

Archive for Monday, November 9, 2009

By Emily Fredrix - Associated Press Writer

November 9, 2009

Nam Y. Huh/AP Photo

Fifth-grader Lizzy Hucker drinks chocolate milk during her lunch break at Roslyn Road Elementary School in Barrington, Ill. Lizzy and some classmates successfully got their school district to allow chocolate milk, saying they and their peers were tossing out their white milk rather than drinking it.

Milwaukee — The creators of the “Got Milk?” campaign are getting ready to make a big push to keep chocolate milk on kids’ minds and on school lunch menus, a plan that has some educators and obesity activists none too pleased.

The new ad campaign from the dairy industry, set to launch today, emphasizes that sugary flavorings are ways to get kids to drink milk. Without them, some youngsters won’t drink regular milk and won’t get its nutrients, the ads say.

The “Raise your hand for chocolate milk” campaign starts today with an ad in USA Today featuring chocolatey brown colors and the launch of a Web site that asks people to sign a petition declaring their support for chocolate milk in school.

But some educators and obesity experts say kids get enough calcium — essential for bone growth — and will drink white milk if it’s the only milk offered. They say kids get too much sugar, which is heightening America’s obesity problem, and schools shouldn’t serve chocolate milk at all.

The idea behind the campaign is to draw a distinction between chocolate milk and the soda and candy that have come under attack in schools, said Vivien Godfrey, CEO of the Milk Processor Education Program, the industry marketing group that developed the campaign with the National Dairy Council. Godfrey said the effort will cost between $500,000 and $1 million.

She said most kids choose chocolate milk, but without it they drink juice, soda or water, which don’t have the same nutrients.

But experts like Marlene Schwartz, deputy directory of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University, want chocolate milk tossed. Schwartz said kids have too much sugar already and chocolate milk has no place in schools.

Dairy products are a common source of added sugar in children’s diets, so that’s why parents and educators consider removing them, she said. But the research does not point to any calcium shortages when chocolate milk is removed in schools.