The Milk Processor Education Program has unveiled a new chocolate milk campaign designed to take advantage of relaxed Olympic marketing rules.
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Swimmers Tyler Clary and Jessica Hardy are featured in the campaign.
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The “Built With Chocolate Milk” campaign stars 2012 London Olympic gold-medal swimmers Tyler Clary and Jessica Hardy, and will emphasize chocolate milk’s role as a recovery beverage in their training. MilkPEP has obtained a waiver from the U.S. Olympic Committee allowing it to keep running the ads through the Rio Games, which previously would have been prohibited under the International Olympic Committee’s Rule 40 because Coca-Cola property
Core Power owns the official, exclusive rights to flavored milk.
To qualify for the waiver, MilkPEP’s chocolate milk marketing must avoid any official Olympic imagery or terminology and begin running by March 27 — the scheduled first air dates for the TV spots, along with the digital and print components. The new ads focus on Clary and Hardy’s training and general athletic prowess, not the Olympics, but the ads do show Team USA swim caps.
MilkPEP’s chocolate milk campaign has an official marketing deal with USA Swimming, allowing the term “official recovery beverage of USA Swimming,” but that does not include rights to the Olympic rings or the July 27-Aug. 24 marketing blackout period during the Rio Games. Separately, MilkPEP signed a deal with the USOC for official Olympic rights to white milk specifically — which does not conflict with Coca-Cola’s worldwide deal — and will run a different campaign, dubbed “Milk Life,” using those rights.
In prepared statements, Clary and Hardy both said they’ve consumed chocolate milk after working out for years. “It’s the thing I look forward to most,” Hardy said.
The campaign’s creative concept was devised by Campbell Ewald, New York. USA Swimming helped MilkPEP solicit athlete endorsers. Hardy was represented by agent Erika Wright of Wright Entertainment & Sports, and Clary was represented by agent Richard Thorpe of Ella Bee Media Group.
“We’re proud to partner with two of the nation’s brightest medal hopefuls and share why chocolate milk is the recovery beverage of the world’s best athletes,” said Miranda Abney, MilkPEP marketing director.
