Farm Beat: Got milk? Then drink it to go to sleep

Three weeks ago, the Got Milk? people talked about how their product would fuel up the Super Bowl quarterbacks on game day.

Now they have a message on how milk can help calm children at bedtime.

The California Milk Processor Board has launched an advertising campaign urging parents to make an evening ritual out of warm cupfuls of the stuff.

"So much of what we do during the day hinges on our good- night-sleep relaxers the day before," Steve James, the board's executive director, said Wednesday.

The campaign started this week with Spanish-language spots on Univision and will spread in the spring to English speakers.

"Duermes bien, sueñas bien — toma leche," goes one of the messages: "Sleep well, dream well — drink milk."

The board, based in San Clemente, Orange County, promotes the top-grossing farm product from the Northern San Joaquin Valley and the state overall.

The board has targeted Latinos in the past with ads describing how milk can enhance dental health and build strong muscles, among other things.

A study by the board found that 94 percent of the state's Latinos always have milk in their homes, more than the population at large. The ads aim to sustain that.

The new campaign will have radio and online elements along with TV.

The board notes that milk contains tryptophan, an amino acid believed to improve sleep quality. (So does turkey, though its sleep-inducing effect on Thanksgiving feasters has been overstated.)

The Got Milk? message has had many permutations since it debuted in 1993. In 2005, it was named the best slogan in TV history in a survey of marketing professionals across the country.

Got Milk? was adopted by a national dairy group as part of the "milk mustache" campaign. Among the latest celebrities to don one is Colin Kaepernick, the Turlock-raised quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, who was featured in a USA Today ad just before the Super Bowl.

OK, we know how that turned out. But we can put our faith in Kap to get back to the big game, just as we can hope that the dairy industry gets through its current economic squeeze.

You can help tonight by warming a cup of milk — yawn — and curling up with your children — yawn — for a moment of zzzzzzzzzz ...

Have an idea for the Farm Beat? Contact John Holland at jholland@modbee.com or (209) 578-2385.