Arla treat women like cows.

Arla treat women like cows. (and cows like shit)
Pray tell, how would you sell something as wholesome as milk to teenage boys?

Arla.dk who rule roughly 90% of the Scandinavian milk market, think they have it figured.
Cows = milk . Cow = Woman. Woman = Boobs. Boobs = Milk ! Sorted!

Somehow they treat their targets as a pavlovian dog that will salivate on command and remember: "milk!" no slimy mustaches as far as the eye can see, this might disgust some of you still.

In an effort to get more kids to choose the good white stuff over the bad sugary soda pops, they have launched flavored milks, in easy to carry bottles. Launching to the same market in two very similar countries, the campaigns are miles apart, and there is no plan to build a bridge just yet.

In Sweden, (land of the midnight fun) a commercial for drinkable yogurt (also Arla) aimed at the teenage market (also boys) goes like this:

A boy circles a schoolyard on his cool moped and does neat tricks to impress a girl, she is pretending not to notice him as she drinks her yogurt from a bottle.
He finally drives up to her, throwing an extra impressive skid in for good measure.

She shoots out the question: -" Do you like, like me or something?"
the boy, stumped, replies with:
-"Eeh...Ah..eh...Uh..wel...ah..uhm...mmm..eh...Do'h...."

then the tag-line appears: Yoggi - not as thick.

this story is very cute, well filmed, and also treats the viewer as intelligent. Not only that, it's quite funny, and the situation is instantly recognizable for anyone who's ever been a teenager.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the bridge in Denmark (land of Lego) , these girls sell milk by.. eh.. well standing around.

Representing a flavor each, they are introduced as Vanilla, Cacao and Naturel. Here the girls push their car home. Good thing they have strong bones due to milk, aye?

If you think these images look slightly pornographic (considering the poses) you're not alone. Within the first day these posters had received 40 complaints - the funny part being that one third of them came from Sweden, where these ads don't even run.

Ah, but we know how those naughty swedes are. They ban ads for lingerie for "objectifying women" , and ERK (bureau for Ethical advertising in Sweden) regularly bans any ads that show naked or semi-naked women that have nothing to do with the product.
According to ERK a woman can show underwear or bikini's if that is what is being advertised. A woman can't be clad in a bikini selling, say, power drills as this objectifies the woman as a sexual attention grabber with no correlation to the product being sold. (obviously, they don't go to the same clubs as I do.)

the Forbrugerombudsmanden (comsumer ombudsman) in Denmark dismissed a complaint from the Kvindeligt Selskab (women's organization) about this campaign today with the statement:

"The way the media and fashion images have developed, these current ads - that are pretty banal - in this campaign are not considered by us to be "sensational", and we doubt that the business court would judge these ads to be against good marketing ethics."

I don't know what you read, but I read: "There's so much titty everywhere anyway, so what's the difference? Too late now. Check a fashion magazine and you'll see." and a shrug on the shoulders.
I also see an opinion on how this would do in court without actually allowing it the opportunity to reach court, to find out, making the consumer ombudsman the judge and jury in one go.

click on the chicks to see their commercial films at arla.dk

These films are really good, when the films began to run, the complaints about the campaign received were far less. Honest. (thats what Arla says anyway.)

The first film depicts our heroines running down a beach towards the camera in the best Bo Derek style, and nothing much else (literally).

The second film however, is commented by teenage girls watching TV who say: "Gross, why don't they have men running instead?", in an instant their wish is granted, and three fat older guys wobble toward the camera, to which the girls exclaim "ew!".

In a third film, three ken-doll like men are running down the beach in the advert, and two teenage boys watching telly discuss "who are these geezers?", "I dunno, the women's curling team?" (meaning they are wimps) and the film rewinds to reveal the girls instead and the boys gleefully add "wehey, that's more like it".

moral of the story? There are no ugly women in Denmark, presumably, oh, and men are dogs.

No, I don't actually think the films are good. I was being sarcastic.

I think the films provide a lame joke as to excuse the girlie posters all over town.

I also think that the films themselves might be more insulting to women and teenage boys themselves, than the posters are, not to mention insulting to boys that look like Ken Dolls. ;-)