Milk Mustache Database

Notes

The billboard art: the governor and his mother with a glass of milk, the quote in script and got milk? at the lower right

Wording as printed: got milk?.

Issued by: Pennsylvania dairy farmers (“farmer-funded billboards”, printed caption; the group is not named). Year: 1999 (Lancaster Farming, 20 Mar 1999, p. B12, per report).

Lancaster Farming of July 15, 2000 (p. B17, in the gallery) says the governor and his mother “have teamed up with the Pennsylvania Dairy Promotion Program” (PDPP) for June Dairy Month, that “Gov. Ridge debuted in 1999 as the first statewide public official to be featured in the farmer-funded ‘got milk?’ advertising campaign, which was sponsored by PDPP”, and that “the governor and his mother, Laura Ridge, are pictured wearing milk mustaches and clinking glasses of milk”, with the caption “Mom always said I’d go far if I drank my milk. Got milk?” It describes the governor as “seated on the arm of a chair beside his mother”, whereas in the 1999 photograph he stands behind her, so the 2000 boards may have used a second picture; none has been found. The 1999 article (Lancaster Farming, March 20, 1999, p. B12, as read by the research pass) lists boards in Johnstown/Altoona, Erie, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh, State College and Williamsport, and one in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton paid for by the American Dairy Association & Dairy Council Inc. Moved to the regional and unofficial section: the pair wear milk mustaches and the boards carry the got milk? line.