‘Got Milk’ Ads Survive High Court Challenge

Those ads showing famous people with milk mustaches asking “Got Milk?” survived a U.S. Supreme Court challenge. The justices, without comment, rejected an appeal in which some dairy farmers challenged the government’s authority to force them to finance the generic ads aimed at boosting the industry. Two years ago, the nation’s highest court upheld a government program requiring growers and shippers of California peaches, plums and nectarines to help pay for a no-brand advertising campaign for those fruits. That 5-4 ruling said being forced to pay for generic ads does not amount to unconstitutional “forced speech.” Many experts said at the time the decision’s rationale would extend to other generic ad campaigns, such as those for dairy products, pork and eggs. A federal appeals court in March relied heavily on the 1997 ruling when it threw out the dairy farmers’ challenge to the program that, since 1984, has required them to subsidize generic ads. Dairy farmers and other milk producers are assessed about $250 million a year for the popular ads. The challenge to that mandatory assessment had come in a 1996 lawsuit that alleged violations of speech and associational rights.