[530] in Vegetarian_Support_Group
milk ad controversy
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (elsiedee@MIT.EDU)
Sun Apr 23 11:55:47 1995
To: vsg@MIT.EDU
Date: Sun, 23 Apr 95 11:54:57
From: elsiedee@MIT.EDU
From Vegetarian Times, May 1995 issue:
AD CAMPAIGN CAUSES CONTROVERSY
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In an effort to halt three decades of declining milk sales, the
National Fluid Milk Processor Promotion board recently launched a $52
million print ad campaign featuring female celebrities with milk mustaches
and the tagline "Milk, What a Surprise!" But it is the board that has been
surprised by one group's reaction to the ads: The Physicians Committee for
Responsible Medicine (PCRM) has filed a pair of complaints with the Federal
Trade Commission (FTC), alleging that the ads are "deceptive" and
"dangerously misleading."
PCRM, a Washington, D.C., group that promotes vegetarianism and
humane medical research, takes issue with the ads' implication that the
calcium in milk can prevent osteoporosis. According to PCRM president Neal
Barnard, M.D., "The ads...suggest that milk protects women's bones and
prevents osteoporosis. However, research has shown that drinking milk has
little or no benefit to preventing osteoporosis."
PCRM maintains that the ad campaign obscures the fact that
decreased bone mass is typically caused by too much calcium loss, rather
than too little calcium intake. According to Barnard, "Countries with high
calcium intakes typically have much higher fracture rates compared to
countries with lower calcium intakes, indicating that factors [causing]
calcium loss easily overwhelm any beneficial effect of a higher calcium
intake." Two dietary factors that can increase calcium loss are consumption
of animal protein and sodium.
Robert P. Heaney, M.D., a member of the milk promotion board's
medical advisory board and a professor of medicine at Creighton University
in Omaha, Neb., agrees that calcium loss is a problem but stresses that
inadequate intake is also part of the equation. "For most people it is
easier to fix the calcium intake component of the problem than to fix the
calcium excretory loss problem," says Heaney. An extra serving or two of
low-fat or skim milk each day will do the job nicely."
The FTC will not discuss PCRM's complaints.
This is not the first time that a milk advertising campaign has
prompted a complaint by a vegetarian advocacy group. In 1991, the American
Dairy Association and American Dairy Farmers sponsored a series of radio
commercials touting milk as a "miracle cure." The Dolgeville, N.Y.-based
North American Vegetarian Society filed a claim with the New York State
Department of Law and Bureau of Consumer Fraud, alleging that the ads were
false and misleading. The state of New York did not act against the ads,
but the ads disappeared after the society lodged its complaint. -Jack
Rosenberger
***
