The California Milk Processor Board (CMPB), known for the Got Milk? campaign since 1993, has taken a bold new approach with a campaign that has started with a music video starring White Gold, an idealistic rocker who plays a milk guitar.
One Gallon Axe is the three-minute, nineteen-second video that launched at MySpace and YouTube March 17 and has already generated more than 217,000 plays at YouTube. Another music video will be released along with five or six TV spots in a campaign that is targeted to 12 to 17 year-old children.
The campaign launched online because “it’s where people are watching and listening to music,” said Paul Charney, associate creative director at Goodby, Sliverstein and Partners, which created the video that was produced by MJZ/Los Angeles.
Goodby was responsible for the Got Milk? campaign, “but this campaign’s different,” Charney said. “We’re trying to update the campaign and make it familiar to a younger generation in more of a digital direction.
“The idea behind the White Gold band is it embodies milk,” he said. This is done in a variety of ways: the video begins with a shot of White Gold’s guitar being filled with milk and he plays the bright white instrument throughout the video; White Gold is a sharp looking figure with long blonde hair, strong teeth and healthy bones, which are body benefits attributable to milk.
The video tells the story of White Gold who was walking along down and out when an angel suddenly descended and gave him the guitar. From there he has devoted his life to playing music that glorifies milk. “The rock star’s amped about milk and how it got him where he is today,” Charney said. “It’s wholesome to show how rock stardom came from drinking milk.”
White Gold, played by an actor Charney won’t name, stars in the video, but doesn’t actually perform the music. That was done by Electric 6 who composed the song with lyrics written by the agency.
Tom Kuntz, the MJZ director, said the film was made at Hollywood Center Studios in January during a three-day shoot. “It was different from a normal project where the agency has come up with the creative component,” he said. “In this one, all they had was the idea of White Gold.” He said he determined who the artist would be and what he would sound like. “We started creating the music and once it was in a rough state we started concepting the music video.” Kuntz said it was his idea that the video would be about a guitar filled with milk and that the video would be “stark and embrace the whiteness of milk with a mystical energy to it.”
It was shot on film with an Arriflex Arricam Lite 16mm camera for a cinematic look, he said.
Most of the video is concert footage with White Gold jamming on his milk guitar and a bassist and drummer pounding away. A chorus appears on stage next to the band, all dressed in white.
CMPB’s executive director Steve James said the film is “an attempt to communicate with teens and the public and do something fun that makes milk a little more cool. Past campaigns have positioned milk as a wonder tonic full of benefits and nutrients. This campaign is further along that line and farther out there.”
He thinks playing the video online is wise. “It’s a good way to seed the campaign without spending the dollars you spend on TV and this is where our audience is.”
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