Happiness and Culture

By Anthony Sloan

Abstract:

For centuries milk has been promoted as a “superfood” and associated with wellbeing and happiness. In the popular imagination (especially in advertising), milk appears in the context of family life, parental love, Santa Claus, good health, beauty, and “the simple life” on a farm close to nature. All these cultural tropes are strongly associated with happiness. In some cases-like Organic Valley’s marketing slogan, “Happy cows make better milk”-the connection is explicitly stated with the sense of wellbeing extended to include the animals, possibly to counter the truth about industrial dairy farming. 

This culture-wide celebration of milk creates a fantasy landscape that covers up the reality: milk is actually unhealthy for a large percentage of the population; cows are usually terribly mistreated during the production process; and there are a number of non-dairy milks that are competing for market share. All these issues are factors in what some critics have dubbed the “Milk Wars,” the attempt by the dairy industry to defend its market position, as fluid milk sales decline, including regulating what beverages can even be called milk and by doubling down on efforts to associate milk with wellbeing, health, and happiness.

My presentation surveys how these “milk wars” are playing out in contemporary American culture across social media and mainstream media platforms.”