Those milk mustaches

I have a shed where I greet my visitors. It is decorated with cow photos, paintings and a lot of promotional posters with the celebrities showing off their milk mustache. I must admit that I think this was the best milk promotional campaign ever.
Back in the 1990s, there were some health issues that were surfacing that could be simply corrected by drinking milk throughout childhood. Osteoporosis, bone fractures and loss of bone density were being diagnosed at an alarming rate. These conditions have no cure but could have been prevented by drinking nutritious, wholesome, economically-affordable milk.
This promotional campaign started by targeting women who usually have the choice of purchasing milk at the grocery store but within the next few years targeted all audiences. The first famous mustached women in magazine ads were Naomi Campbell, Christie Brinkley, Joan Rivers, Lauren Bacall and Isabella Rossellini.
The success of this promotion led to many athletes and celebrities participating and helping to get the healthy message out to everyone to drink milk. The list continued to grow and so did the promotion of them showing off their mustache, muscles, beautiful teeth and strong bones.
In my collection of now vintage posters I have Mia Hamm, Jackie Chan, Venus and Serena Williams, Curly Howard, Whoopi Goldberg, Marc Anthony, Pikachu and Rulon Gardner.
I got these vintage posters years ago from someone who had a pile of them in their back room and surprised me with them. They quickly went up on the walls in the tour shed, but we also framed many and have them on display in our bathroom in the robot barn. It is so fun to hear people talk about and recognize these younger versions of celebrities and the campaign.
In March, a family came for a birthday party for Kelly, the mom, who wanted to milk a cow. As the family members arrived, they were looking around and saw the poster of Rulon Gardner, the Olympic gold medalist, holding milk pails in front of a cow with milk splashing. I admitted this is one of my favorites, and Kelly’s son, Hunter, said Gardner is one of his heroes. Hunter is not old enough to remember the campaign but has seen enough vintage images to know what it means. Drink milk.
I quickly went to see if I had a spare copy of the poster, and I did. So, I gave it to him, and he was so impressed that I gave it to him for free. The tour was great, and just recently, I got an email from Kelly that said they had moved to Missouri and found a camp that Gardner was hosting. They told him all about our farm and the whole experience milking a cow and the poster. Hunter got to wrestle around with him and learned a bunch of new techniques and had him sign the poster. She sent me photos and said thank you for making his day extra special.
This is exactly what this promotional campaign is supposed to do. These celebrities are real people; they drink milk for their healthy bodies, bones and beautiful smiles with white teeth. Hunter will forever remember Gardner; he will always be a milk drinker because his family loves milk and knows the health benefits will help him be a better wrestler too.
With the decline in fluid milk consumption being threatened by consumers choosing vitamin water, sparkling water and flavored water along with coffee and other soft drinks, we need to get the message back out there. Milk has the best nutrition, and is the most economical recovery drink that is all natural and tastes great. Even if it is flavored, it still has more of the nutrients like calcium, phosphorus, B vitamins, potassium and vitamin D. Plus, it is an excellent source of protein.
    Tina Hinchley, and her husband,  Duane, daughter Anna, milk 240 registered Holsteins with robots.  They also farm 2300 acres of crops near Cambridge, Wisconsin.  The Hinchley’s have been hosting farm tour for over 25 years.