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Not Milk? Small Town Declares Lactose Intolerance to Commercial Cash Cow

Submitted by claymore on Fri, 11/08/2002 - 06:19.
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It's had a good run. No, it's had a great run. It's had a long, long run. It even achieved status as an ubiquitous catch phrase. And every time we started to think that they milked it for all it was worth, they turned around and surprised us with something fresh.

They tried to rise to the challenge once again, but the best laid plans of cows and men don't always play out as hoped...

The Got Milk? folks offered a tiny little town named Biggs an obscene amount of money to change their name to, well, "Got Milk?"

And the result? The town said "No."

But don't fret. On the upside, it gave journalists (and me) a glorious chance to write silly headlines and stories (see HERE and HERE and HERE for just a few examples). And there's plenty of other towns out there with a lot less pride just waiting to be given the chance to fill their coffers with milky moolah in exchange for a dang ridiculous name.

So... is this promotional effort a stroke of genius, or the last gasp of a dying campaign?

(note: found via obscure store)

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No votes yet
Submitted by Robblink on Fri, 11/08/2002 - 21:44.

Great story find Clay. The small town of Biggs may have said no to Got Milk, but maybe some other advertisers can find some other towns that are willing to play:

Intercourse, Pennsylvania - Reach out and touch someone.

Submitted by claymore on Fri, 11/08/2002 - 22:42.

Heh. Well, historically, there is Hershey, PA, but they have a much better reason for being named as such - the whole epoch of chocolatiering thing.

Submitted by claymore on Sat, 11/09/2002 - 02:37.

Mercury News' Mike Cassidy has the perfect alternative solution to the Got Milk? problem.

Submitted by tlevitz on Wed, 11/20/2002 - 19:11.

Sad, dying gasp. For those of us who dream of creating a little bit of lasting pop culture, Got Milk is a raging success but as I understood it, did little to create a legion of milk drinkers. Lets just name a couple of dying towns after New Coke and whatever else and really kick 'em when they're down.