Oatly crashes Dairy Foods Association’s lobbying event to expose Big Milk’s climate impact

Oatly, a plant-based milk alternative brand, did just that when it crashed Dairy Foods Association’s 40th Annual Capitol Hill Ice Cream Party last month, challenging the dairy lobby’s narrative on climate impact.

These actions were documented in a guerrilla-style documentary, ‘Enter the Dairy Deprogramming Zone,’ released on Monday. This humorous yet informative video confronts the dairy lobby’s marketing and lobbying efforts that mask the environmental toll of milk production. As the brand reports, over the past eight years alone, the dairy industry has spent nearly $8bn on such initiatives.

In the film, an Oatly spokesperson asks attendees whether or not the event’s organizers educated them about Big Dairy’s “massive carbon emissions” and “water usage.” Predictably, the response was a resounding “no.”

Going along with the political theme, one guest goes so far as to say, “I won’t say there isn’t a dairy deep state. How about that?”

The interviewer then directs attendees to an Oatly food truck parked across the street offering “propaganda-free soft-serve.”

Oatly’s efforts align with its commitment to transparency and sustainability. Not only does Oatly say its oat milk boasts a 49% lower climate impact than cow’s milk, but it has started including carbon footprint labeling on its products – a first in the US food industry.

The campaign, created in partnership with the experiential agency Factory360, challenges Big Dairy for similar transparency and prompts consumers to cut down on animal products, as reductions on industrial livestock are critical to meet the goal of lowering global GHG emissions by 45% by 2030, according to UN data.

“Our goal is to educate people on the major role that Big Dairy plays in our climate crisis. One of the easiest ways that Americans can lower their climate footprint is by eliminating meat and dairy from their diets, but many are unaware of this because of the narrative that the dairy industry has been pushing,” Michael Lee, executive vice-president and executive creative director at Oatly North America, told The Drum.

“We took matters into our own hands and showed up at Capitol Hill unannounced with our Dairy Deprogramming Zone activation during one of their larger annual lobbying events. Many DCers were receptive to our presence, but we definitely made some folks uncomfortable on the dairy side. Moments like this and the response that we received from our Climate Footprint Challenge last year are worth it to us. All that we ask for is transparency, and we’re going to be loud until that happens.”

Interested in creative campaigns? Check out our Ad of the Day section and sign up for our Ads of the Week newsletter so you don’t miss a story.