Dairy through the decades

Dairy UK threw open its archives for the industry to have a look at the many treasures from its milk’s advertising past. Suzanne Christiansen reports.

The room at the Royal Society in London was filled with nostalgia, as attendees examined the videos and advertisements from their childhood. Milk has long been a source of nutrition, but the idea of the 100 years where dairy has been advertised was “to celebrate health,” as Dr Judith Bryans, president of Dairy UK, pointed out. The archivists went through thousands of photos and videos and printed matter in its Milk Advertising Archive, to give everyone “a unique window into how dairy has helped nutrition in the UK,” she noted.

That being said, Bryans observed that the whole exhibition was just “not about nostalgia, but about the future, where the dairy industry continues to produce safe, affordable and sustainable foods. We believe diets should be realistic and nutrient-rich. The outcomes have practical implications for the health of the country, going forward into the future.” Well said.

Beginnings

In 1920, the National Milk Publicity Council (NMPC) met for the first time and were incorporated on 4 February 1925. Over time, the evolution has been from encouraging consumers to drink a “pinta” milk, to more recently, “Milk Your Moments” and “It’s what we’re made of.” In 1927, the first school milk programme was established by the NMPC to get milk for schoolchildren, and this programme has since spread across the world.

The history is fascinating, from the Milk Marketing Board created in 1933 to help regulate milk supply and assist the NMPC, which included advertising. There was the wartime efforts to encourage workers to drink milk, even with rationing. The year 1958 saw the birth of one of the most famous advertising slogans of the 20th century, the “Drinka Pinta Milka Day.” The 1960s also saw the establishment of the National Dairy Centre in Oxford Circus, London, along with the adverts.

And so it went. Today, dairy advertising is as much digital as it is paper-based, but it is still important to get the message out to the consumers and the public in general.