Lost in the translation / Milk board does without its famous slogan when it woos a Latino audience

Undated handout photo of 'Got Milk' campaign for Spanish speakers. Undated handout photo of 'Got Milk' campaign for Spanish speakers. Photo: Handout Photo: Handout Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Lost in the translation / Milk board does without its famous slogan when it woos a Latino audience 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

Difficult though it may be to believe, not all of us have been chortling and slapping our knees upon seeing those delightful "Got Milk?" commercials. What's so funny, some Latinos have asked, about a tag line that translates to "Are you lactating?"

As funny as these ads, created by Goodby, Silverstein & Partners in San Francisco, are for most of us -- imagine the hell of having a bountiful supply of chocolate chip cookies but no milk -- the famous campaign's story lines made no mention of tradition and family, which are important to Latinos in choosing brands.

Moreover, the idea of a Latina mother running out of milk is offensive, not funny. The original "Got Milk?" campaign was not marketed to mothers and grandmothers, the milk buyers in Latino households.

Fortunately for the California Milk Processor Board, the sponsor of the ads that turn on the horror of milk deprivation, the cultural disconnection between "Got Milk?" and Latino consumers was detected early.

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Almost since the beginning of the advertising campaign in October 1993, there has been a separate, more traditional pitch for milk in Spanish-language media. That campaign has been quite successful through the years, reaching millions in the Latino community in California, including 1.3 million Latinos who live in the nine-county Bay Area.

Earlier this month, the latest Spanish-language milk campaign, carrying the slogan, "Familia, Amor y Leche" ("Family, Love and Milk"), began airing statewide.

From their inception, the Spanish-language ads have been the work of Anita Santiago, a veteran Los Angeles advertising executive who works exclusively in Spanish. It was Santiago who told the California Milk Processor Board in 1993 that "Got Milk?" didn't work for Latinos.

"Being deprived of milk is not a funny spot to be in. It is worrisome for a family-oriented community," said Santiago. "Secondly, the spots were not directed at the key guardian of family nutrition, Mom. And, the ads could be seen as offensive -- that Mom is not being a good housekeeper, that her skills as a housekeeper are being doubted with no milk in the house," said Santiago, whose client roster also includes Wells Fargo, Carl's Jr. and the anti-tobacco ads for the California Department of Health Services.

"The 'Got Milk?' " ads, if directed at Latino consumers, "could have gone terribly wrong," she said.

The damage could have been compounded by the fact that Latinos form the fastest-growing segment of the population in the country. In the Bay Area, the Latino population has grown by 37.5 percent during the past decade.

Santiago designed the first Spanish campaign for the milk board, which carried the tag line, "Y Usted Les Dio Suficiente Leche Hoy?" (Have You Given Them Enough Milk Today?"

These ads incorporated milk recipes in Latino cooking that are passed from generation to generation, and the emotional and cultural bonds of Latinos to milk. They directly targeted mothers and/or grandmothers, and the campaign served the milk board's purposes since the first quarter of 1994.

The board's latest Spanish ads, appearing in the state's major media markets and, in the Bay Area on Univision's KDTV Channel 14 and Telemundo's KSTS Channel 48, look at the traditional Latino recipes that use milk and how different people in the culture use milk, somewhat expanding the target.

One of the ads, called "Supermarket," also fools with a stereotype: It shows a father at a market with his daughter getting the ingredients for a traditional recipe, three-milk cake (generally made with condensed, fresh and evaporated milk). Latino men are typically not depicted in such a place. So why show a man in a market?

"Because Hispanic women love it," said Jeff Manning, the executive director of the milk board who worked for 25 years in the advertising industry before taking the post in 1993.

"They love the idea. It is aspirational. They look at it and say, 'That makes me feel good,' " said Manning.

Latina women must be heading to the market themselves in considerable numbers because research for the California Milk Processor Board, based in Berkeley, shows that Latino milk drinkers drink more milk than non-Latinos.

The research also found that Latino milk drinkers are more likely than non- Latinos to consume milk with all of the key foods that typically are eaten with milk.

Manning said the aversion to the "Got Milk?" campaign in English is unique among Latinos. African Americans and Asian Americans in milk board focus groups appreciate the humor and the tag line, he said. And there are no special considerations in casting for the spots, he said. "The best actors get the work."

But even the Spanish-language advertising contains potential minefields, said Manning. "Translation is a risky thing to do, and casting is always a challenge because, while you want to create real situations, a lot of consumers are not going to want to see the reality of their lives," he said. "So you make it somewhat more aspirational. They don't need a big dose of reality. The minefield would be if you went too far in aspiring."

The milk board has spent some $24 million on Spanish-language advertising since 1994, and the current buy is for $3 million, said Manning.

It's already an informed audience, however. Even if "Got Milk?" fails to work as well for Latinos as it does for people of other ethnicities, they do know about it. Ninety-eight percent of California Hispanics are aware of the ad campaign -- a staggering figure -- compared with 94 percent for non- Hispanics.