Aaron Burr (got milk?)
California Milk Processor Board1993
Aaron Burr, better known as “Got Milk?”, is a 1993 60-second television commercial for California Milk Processor Board, created by Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco.
The line
got milk?
Why it works
The campaign that sold a product through its absence. Planner Jon Steel's research found people only notice milk when they run out of it, so Goodby, Silverstein & Partners built the entire strategy on deprivation — crystallized in Jeff Goodby's two-word, lower-case line "got milk?". The launch spot, first aired October 29, 1993 and directed by a young Michael Bay, strands a Hamilton-obsessed history buff with a mouth full of peanut butter just as a radio quiz offers $10,000 for the answer he knows: "Aaron Burr." It is studied as a masterclass in strategy-led creativity (the insight dictates the drama), in comic structure under 60 seconds, and in how far a regional dairy board's budget can travel: "Aaron Burr" won Best in Show at the 1994 Clio Awards and the tagline became one of the most borrowed in American culture.
Techniques
- Humour A history buff who knows the prize-winning answer cannot say it through a mouthful of peanut butter, making milk's absence the punchline.
- Storytelling The plot builds towards a radio quiz prize and then strands its hero, dramatising the insight that people notice milk only when it runs out.
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