MILK ADS GOING 'BOO' PUPILS PITCH TO LATINOS.

Byline: Don Jergler Staff Writer

PASADENA - When the creators of the ``Got Milk?'' campaign turned to students at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena to conceive a commercial that appeals to Latino youths, no one could have predicted the nightmare that would result.

The 45-second commercial titled ``Got Milk? La Llorona'' depicts a ghoulish Latin myth. After consuming Mexican pastries in the refrigerator of a home she's haunting, a woman discovers the milk has run out.

Literally translated ``the crying woman,'' La Llorona of legend is a woman who drowned her children and is doomed for eternity to roam the Earth in search of them.

The spot will air on ABC, CBS and NBC in California beginning Monday.

The commercial is the brainchild of art center students Tania Sosa-Lanz, Jose Rennard, David Delgado and Ali Alvarez.

The four bilingual Latino students were asked to create a commercial for the California Milk Processor Board's ``Got Milk?'' campaign, which often features people expressing angst after discovering they've run out of milk.

Based on the prevalence of superstition in the Latino culture, the students decided to take the angst to a supernatural level.

While the concept may seem nightmarish, it's actually cherished by many Latinos, some of whom use the tale to frighten children in need of discipline, according to Sosa-Lanz.

``You grow up knowing the legend,'' the 27-year-old Marina Del Rey resident said. ``It sounds really horrible, but it's a cultural thing.''

Executives at the San Francisco-based ad agency for the campaign, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, were turned off to the idea at first because the subject was so morbid, but they eventually warmed to the concept, she said.

``I think that (the commercial) will give people a good feeling about milk again,'' she said. ``It's really important to speak to people not only in a language, but a cultural way, that they can understand.''

The phrase ``got milk?'' does not translate into Spanish very well, according to Sosa-Lanz, who moved to California from Mexico City at age 5.

``In Spanish, it's like asking people if they're lactating,'' she said.

Rennard, 30, of Pasadena said the commercial did not immediately strike him as morbid because of his Latino heritage.

``The story behind La Llorona is kind of morbid, but in the context of American, not in the context of Latin,'' said Rennard, whose parents immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico before he was born in Pasadena.

Jeff Manning, executive director of the milk board, said the ``Got Milk?'' campaign has been marketed to Latinos with traditional commercials pushing milk-based recipes, but Latino youths are still a largely untapped market.

``The problem for us is that the teen-agers don't cook, but they're bilingual and they're also bicultural,'' Manning said. ``The goal is for these teen-agers to see this advertising and they will feel that milk is much more attached to them culturally.''

According to Manning, studies show 96 percent of teens are aware of the ``Got Milk?'' ads, but consumption continues to decline due to pressure from producers of other beverages that are more available and popular.

``The problem is teens are the target of virtually every other beverage market in the world,'' he said.

Soft drinks and products such as Snapple are being sold to youths as hip drinks, but milk's wholesome image doesn't fly with that market, he said.

``They're aware of 'Got Milk?' They love 'Got Milk?' But they're drinking less milk,'' he said. ``When (teens) go to their favorite fast food chain, they don't drink milk.''

The students, who were recruited for the assignment by Jeff Goodby, the campaign's creative director and a member of the board of directors for the college, came up with 25 different scripts.

The ad agency pruned it to five and showed commercials based on those scripts to test groups of Latino teens.

Two ideas floated to the surface: La Llorona and a commercial featuring disc jockeys dueling each other with Latino music.

``We felt that La Llorona was much more authentic,'' Manning said. ``We think we're going to get a lot of kids talking to each other, which is the most you can expect out of any advertising, is getting kids talking about it.''

The commercial was made with an all-Latino cast and crew and was directed by Oscar-nominated Emmanuel Lubezki, whose film credits include ``Like Water for Chocolate,'' ``Meet Joe Black'' and ``The Birdcage.''

The Milk Board has been tracking milk consumption since 1993. The average milk consumption by teens in 1998 was reported to be 21 ounces per day per teen (that figure includes milk-based drinks, such as hot chocolate, and foods into which milk is poured, like cereal).

By 2001, per-teen milk consumption had dropped to 18 ounces per day - a loss on average of one ounce per year, according to the figures.

Because milk is primarily consumed in homes and during family meals, the milk board plans to aggressively market milk to teens by putting it into vending machines and changing its packaging to give it more appeal, he said.

``The more a kid is out of the house the less milk is consumed,'' Manning said.

Mikio Osaki, chair of the advertising department at the college, hand- picked the students out of nearly 80 in the department.

``From an educational standpoint (working on the commercial) is phenomenal,'' Osaki said. ``The students got experience that it would have taken them years to get.''

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La Llorona, ``the crying woman'' of Latin American folklore, mourns the absence of her favorite beverage in a student-designed ``Got Milk?'' commercial set to air on CBS, NBC and ABC beginning Monday.