It’s not easy getting teens to look up from posting on a friend’s Facebook FunWall while downloading the new Fall Out Boy song and talking on the phone.

With that in mind, Montreal-based Dairy Farmers of Canada is trying something very different to get 12- to 17-year-olds to take notice. It’s running 50 five-second animated TV spots, each highlighting a benefit of milk. For example, one features a dapper man playing a skeleton like a piano to illustrate ‘strong bones.’ All of the spots drive teens to getaloadofmilk.ca, where they can watch the spots and even build their own. A few of the best user-generated spots will run on-air in the coming months.

‘[Teens] know milk is good for them. Milk doesn’t need to build credibility with the target. The task is to get on their radar screens,’ explains Karen Howe, VP/CD at Toronto-based Due North Communications. ‘We thought, ‘Why not remind them of milk’s benefits in a barrage of executions?” And to keep catching teen attention, new spots are launching weekly until the end of December.

‘They really do have fractured attention spans,’ says Howe. ‘We’re constantly rewarding them for paying attention by putting new spots on the air.’

The campaign is running in Ontario and the Maritimes. It also includes OOH executions that have been placed close to high schools.


client: Nathalie Noël, managing director, Dairy Farmers of Canada
agency: Due North Communications
CD: Karen Howe
copywriter: David Gee
AD: Shawn Wells
prodco: Head Gear Animation
directors/animators: Steve Angel, Julian Grey, Isaac King, Philippe Blanchard, Sean Branigan
producer: Kathryn Rawson
sound: Deschamps Studios