One of the most important pieces of activist research that I am fascinated by is our understanding of milk. For the longest time, in multiple countries, people thought that drinking a full glass of milk would provide tremendous health benefits. This can be seen in early American advertising and throughout old posters found in pediatric offices. But is milk actually beneficial to us? If it is, why are some people lactose intolerant? Turns out, after conducting several research studies, milk actually has no substantial benefits to humans and is something that can actually be harmful to some that might be sensitive to lactose or fully lactose intolerant.
So why are we still drinking milk? I believe that this is something that will take time to change but aligning milk with good health is something that is still consistently done throughout the current media. Same goes for cats. Our feline friends actually aren’t able to have milk due to the fact that they are carnivores and their bodies aren’t meant to process that kind of sugar substance. However, we will still see cartoons that show cats drinking milk instead of water as this is something that has become more of an image rather than a reality.
Through activist research, we now have ample alternatives to milk for those that still love the taste and texture of it. From almond milk to oat milk, there are various different choices that actually have health benefits and added vitamins in order to provide people with a nutritious beverage.
Hello,
I enjoyed reading your post. I, too, grew up seeing advertisements for milk via the “Got Milk?” campaign. I vividly remember seeing such commercials on almost every commercial break while watching television, with many of these advertisements featuring celebrities at the time. Rather than solid data, in hindsight, it appears the “Got Milk?” campaign was primarily relying on celebrity endorsement to make their messages seem believable.
Do you think our belief that milk is good for you is the result of social change research, and thus an example of its downside? As we learned in our lesson material, social change research is when the researcher(s) have an investment in the research, as they want to use the data to help improve a social issue (PSU, n.d.). To me, it seems that the “Got Milk” campaign was partially due to such research, as those who owned dairy companies wanted to have data that milk was nutritionally beneficial in order to promote a product that was profitable for them (AEF, n.d.). We know that the “Got Milk” campaign was indeed funded by such dairy companies, so this seems likely.
Natasha
References
Applied Social Psychology (PSYCH 424). (n.d.). Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2008549/modules
The ana educational foundation. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://aef.com/classroom-resources/case-histories/got-milk/.