Milk Mustache Database

Notes

A newspaper photograph of a roadside billboard, printed so dark that only a white shape on the board can be made out, with the caption: “More than 100 Cal Ripken billboards can be seen throughout the Mid-Atlantic market. The Baltimore Orioles player is the celebrity spokesperson for the new ‘Milk—It’s A Natural’ campaign. Iron Man Cal, a lifetime milk drinker, shows people that you are what you drink. Additional ‘got milk?’ billboards, bulletins, television and radio spots will compliment the milk campaign.” (Lancaster Farming, July 11, 1998, p. B14).

The gallery holds three small frames (about 267 px) from a Ripken milk commercial: Ripken in an Orioles jersey raising a glass of milk against a dark vignette; Ripken, number 8, waving to the crowd in front of the warehouse numbers “2131” (his record game of September 6, 1995); and the closing card, a glass of milk with “Milk” and “You Are What You Drink… and Drink… and Drink…”. They come from the production reel of Canvas Films (YouTube XBAjUNrWd-I, 2012, titled “Cal Ripkin - Milk”), which gives no date or sponsor; the commercial is put with the 1998 campaign only because its closing line matches the caption’s “you are what you drink”.

Issued by: not named in the caption or on the frames. The research report names the American Dairy Association / Dairy Council Middle Atlantic as Ripken’s sponsor from a Lancaster Farming article of 2000. The Ripken boards carry the campaign’s own line, not got milk?, as far as the caption says; no milk mustache is described or visible. The growth chart “Want to grow up like Cal Ripken? Drink Milk. It’s a Natural.” has its own entry (poster-dairy-ripken-its-a-natural).