*CDC figures from 2017 showed that fewer than a third of American high school students drank at least one glass of milk a day. By 2022, Gen Z was drinking 20% less milk than the national average, according to Circana data shared with The New York Times.
“Milk is being replaced by other things,” Dr. Mark Corkins, division chief of Pediatric Gastroenterology at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, told Yahoo. “You have all your soft drink commercials and your energy drink commercials, and they’re cool and they’re hip and what everybody’s drinking.”
The Milk Processor Education Program, or MilkPEP, is responding with milkXP. The YouTube series pairs popular creators with education experts, using lessons on topics such as financial literacy to reach younger audiences. Milk is positioned as the nutritional fuel behind the learning.
One of the campaign’s biggest names is Harper Zilmer, a 17-year-old Dallas influencer with more than 14 million followers across her social media platforms. “Milk has nutrients to help you focus,” she says in one video.
Scroll to continue reading
MilkPEP CEO Yin Woon Rani said the idea grew from recognizing that teens want to learn but often tune out traditional teaching methods. “There is a relevance gap in the way that traditional education is delivered to them,” she told Yahoo.
The series is part of a wider “Gonna Need Milk” campaign that also reaches teens through platforms including Roblox and Snapchat.
Schools are another potential growth area. The Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act, enacted in January, allows federally funded schools to serve whole milk again. Corkins isn’t convinced the change will be enough. He noted that much of a person’s skeleton develops by age 16.
“We’re worried that when all these current adolescents are 50 and 60, we’re going to have an osteoporosis crisis,” he said.
RELATED NEWS ON EURWEB.COM: Janet Jackson Joins Justin Timberlake’s Apple Docuseries
We Publish Breaking News 24/7. Don’t Miss Out! Sign up for our Free daily newsletter HERE.
