The Power of the Milk Mustache

Advertising is an interesting form of argument. When I use the word argument I do not mean it as one would describe two children disputing over whose turn it is to play with a wanted toy—what I mean is argument as a form of persuasion. Advertisement is certainly a form of persuasion and thus argument. Companies of all varieties use the tool of advertising to persuade us into cooperation with them—that is to use their product. The nature of advertising as argument is that the points asserted by the company need to connect with the audience quickly and with little explanation as the audience is apt to move on to something else if what they are now viewing isn't of interest to them. Because of this challenge today’s advertisements, for the most part, have become very effective at quickly connecting with an audience and making a case for that audience to use their product.

Such is the case with the familiar "Got Milk?" ads common to billboards and magazines throughout the US. I find these advertisements to be very effective forms of argument. To put it one way, they do a lot with a little. When an advertiser knows that all that it will take for some average Joe like me to want a glass of milk is a photo of someone famous and a few sentences of dialog than you know that they are really on to something.

If you were, for example, to look at the “got milk?” ad featuring Superman, played by Brandon Routh, you would see a lot communicated in a small one page advertisement. In this advertisement Superman stands, arms folded, in true superhero stance behind a scene above the clouds as if he were somehow suspended in the air. At first glance you may miss the faint white milk-mustache just above his upper lip which is the focus of the advertisement. In the dialog, Superman articulates his tender feelings for this healthy drink and, in an inviting (persuading!) way expresses that I too may consume said drink.

The power that lies behind this and other “got milk?” advertisements is that by portraying uncommon and influential people in a common light with a milk mustache it somehow connects us. “Maybe by drinking milk I am pretty super just like superman. I mean if he drinks milk it must be cooler than I thought it was.” What makes it even more effective is that if Superman isn’t really your cup of tea (or milk) than wait till next month when in the next issue of your favorite magazine you will see Miley Cyrus posed with a milk-mustache and expressing her undying love for this wonderful beverage. No matter who you are someone has a milk-mustache that will speak to you—or so the guys at “got milk?” would hope.