In 1970, each American on average consumed 31.3 gallons of milk. He said that last year, on average, Americans consumed 23 gallons, and without the campaign it would likely have been about 19 gallons. Part of the decline, especially among teen-agers, is attributable to the number of beverage options consumers have. In contrast to the 23 percent decline in milk consumption, Americans drank more than twice as much soda in 1997 as they did in 1970, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Vending machines that dispense flavored milk are already being tested at middle schools and high schools in Southern California, Austin, Texas, and Boston.
Students can buy chocolate, strawberry or coffee-flavored milk.
There has been an effort to increase milk drinking in restaurants by consumers, Manning said. However, it is difficult to persuade restaurants to serve milk because it needs refrigeration and there is a higher profit margin for other beverages such as soda and iced tea, he said. Milk needs to become more accessible in order to make the campaign more successful, said Dennis Guseman, professor of marketing and chairman of the management and marketing department at Cal State Bakersfield. For example, the campaign did not successfully equate beauty and milk as Nike's ads associate performance with its shoes. California processes about 740 million gallons of fluid milk per year.