From the ‘Got Milk?’ generation to the ‘Not Milk’ generation
Gen Zers just aren’t buying milk as much as older generations.
In a recent New York Times article, Generation Z was dubbed the “Not Milk generation” because they bought 20% less milk than the national average last year. Gen Zers grew up when milk alternatives like almond milk and oat milk became trendy.
It’s not just that Gen Zers don’t buy milk as much, they also are embarrassed to order it in public. The Beet reported on a study which said 49% of Gen Zers “felt ashamed to order dairy in public in front of their peers.” But around 29% said they only ordered dairy alternatives in public and drink dairy privately.
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So why are Gen Zers ditching the dairy?
The Beet suggests it may be because of Gen Z’s consideration for the environment, while The New York Times cited a Gen Zer named Yvonne Zapata who said she doesn’t think milk is healthy.
In 1993, there was a similar issue for dairy companies. Fewer people were drinking milk, which led to the marketing campaign Jonathan Kauffman in Saveur said was “one of the most successful advertising campaigns in American history” — the “Got Milk?” campaign.
Who doesn’t remember those pictures of celebrities and influencers with milk mustaches? Even though the campaign was successful in becoming a cultural zeitgeist, it doesn’t seem to have led to a boom in milk consumption.
“Milk did seem cool for a spell, but whether it got Americans to drink more milk is questionable,” Saveur reported. “On the one hand, for a year or two in the mid-1990s, there was a microbump in milk drinking, as described in a corroborated 1999 study showing that milk checkoff ads caused a 6 percent hike in milk sales.”
The microbump didn’t last and milk consumption is down among the younger generations three decades after the launch of the campaign.
Instead of dairy milk, consumers are turning to alternatives made from nuts, oats, beans, legumes and other foods. The dairy alternative industry is a billion dollar one, according to Dairy Foods. The most popular substitutes are almond milk and oat milk.
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There are other substitutes for milk, like cashew milk or soy milk or hemp milk. You can even make some of these at home following recipes like this one from the Minimalist Baker.
Even though milk drinking is on the decline, dairy products like cheese are doing well among younger consumers. In fact, one study reported on by Refrigerated & Frozen Foods magazine found that most Americans eat cheese and millennials are eating cheese at a higher rate than other generations.
So even though younger generations may be skipping the dairy milk, they are still consuming other dairy products like cheese.
