There are just a few methods to have a look at the brand new adverts for plant-based drink model Silk Nextmilk. First, they may very well be an homage to some of the iconic and visually impactful campaigns in historical past, with an animal-free product tweak and a passel of celeb offspring.
Or second: A bunch of nepo infants star in a blatant rip-off of the legendary and lauded milk mustache marketing campaign.
Take your decide.
Entrepreneurs at Danone, the father or mother firm of the Silk and So Scrumptious traces of plant-based milks, creamers, yogurt and frozen desserts, would admit solely to “embracing the following era of milk drinkers” and highlighting “the faces of the brand new plant-based era.”
And but, there’s the instantly recognizable inventive hook: The skinny, viscous white line above the highest lips of Brooklyn Peltz Beckham, Sailor Brinkley Prepare dinner, Ella Bleu Travolta and Myles O’Neal, together with siblings Shareef, Me’Arah, Shaqir and Amirah.
There’s additionally the added, however unspoken, callback to the sooner period. Well-known mother and father David Beckham, Christie Brinkley, Kelly Preston Travolta and Shaquille O’Neal wore the unique milk mustache.
Silk dropped adverts as digital out-of-home placements within the “celebrity-rich environments” of Los Angeles, New York and Las Vegas, based on Olivia Sanchez, vp of selling for plant-based drinks at Danone North America. There will likely be a takeover on Individuals.com.
The marketing campaign will get a late-night shoutout on Jimmy Kimmel Stay, per a phase with the host’s sidekick Guillermo Rodriguez, together with social and digital distribution through Fb, TikTok and different platforms.
Clone wars
The work comes from Silk’s company of file, the Brooklyn-based indie store Orchard. Senior leaders there have roots that stretch again to Goodby, Silverstein & Companions, originators of the “Bought Milk?” tagline for the California Milk Processors Board, although they have been reportedly not concerned in that work.
“Bought Milk?” was an on the spot hit with shoppers, changing into a cultural touchstone and an industry-awards magnet. It rapidly expanded right into a nationwide effort and intertwined with Bozell Worldwide’s then-nascent milk mustache imagery for the Milk Processor Schooling Program.
Beginning within the mid-Nineteen Nineties and stretching into the 2010s, tons of of Hollywood’s A-list donned the ‘stache. Supermodel Naomi Campbell and famed photographer Annie Leibovitz kicked off the trouble, which finally included Harrison Ford, Kermit the Frog, Taylor Swift, Stone Chilly Steve Austin, Spike Lee, The Simpsons and different luminaries from sports activities, leisure, popular culture and politics.
Bought copycat?
There’s loads of precedent within the promoting world of look-alike campaigns and ideas, although the Silk adverts are extra overt than most. Creatives at Orchard declined to debate the brand new work with Adweek.
Silk aimed to “faucet into the cultural cloth of America,” nod to nostalgia and “sign a altering of the guard within the beverage aisle,” Sanchez instructed Adweek. “We needed to make sure everybody would speak about it, and it might drive the trial and consciousness we’re in search of.”
Danone and rival Blue Diamond Growers lead the plant-based milk phase within the U.S., with the general class reaching greater than $3 billion in annual gross sales, per Statista. Although the recognition of fake meat has dipped not too long ago, gross sales of milk substitutes made from nuts and grains have continued to extend, sustaining share as the biggest class within the $7.4 billion plant-based meals {industry}.
Silk, which ran a “Milk of the Land” marketing campaign in 2021 to “demystify what plant-based is,” has not too long ago revamped its packaging, Sanchez stated. The brand new adverts particularly goal Gen Z, leaning into information that claims 65% of the demo needs a extra plant-forward food plan and 84% say meals decisions a part of their id, per Sanchez.
