Dairy industry wins communications award

Dairy Foods, August, 2002

ROSEMONT, Ill.--The dairy industry recently was presented with a Spectra Award of Merit in the category of Issues Management by the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) in Chicago.

The dairy industry's award entry titled "Science Takes on Sensationalism-Dealing With the Challenges of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)" highlights the industry's strategies for refuting PETA's anti-dairy "Milk Suckers" campaign, which was geared toward school children in November 2000 through May 2001.

In designing a response strategy to combat the misinformation, the dairy industry worked with grassroots representatives, school officials and third-party experts to provide media with credible science-based information when PETA brought its campaign to local markets. This helped turn the group's negative stunts into balanced, dairy-positive media stories.