MILK MUSTACHES FOR EVERYBODY.

Byline: Jenifer Hanrahan Daily News Staff Writer

Starbucks coffee for hanging out. Evian for working out. Coke or Snapple for eating out. Beer - any kind of beer - for going out.

With so many hipper brands of beverages to choose from, by the time kids get to college, drinking milk has gone the way of curfews and lunchboxes.

The evidence: Three out of four college students drink a glass or less of milk a day, according to a recent survey by a market research firm and Rolling Stone magazine.

That leaves roughly four out of five college-age women and half of college-age men deficient in the calcium department - way below the daily allowance of 1,200 to 1,500 milligrams, or about three tall glasses of milk, they should be getting, says the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

But with Shaquille O'Neal pushing Pepsi and Michael Jordan pitching Gatorade, how could plain-old wholesome milk compete?

The strategy: Hire celebrity milk drinkers.

Two years ago, the Fluid Milk Processor Education Program launched a $70 million advertising campaign featuring Dennis Rodman, Tyra Banks, Kate Moss, Pete Sampras and Spike Lee sporting a white ``milk'' mustache. (Photo stylists revealed the perfect white line above their upper lip was mostly vanilla ice cream.)

``One of the things we're trying to do is make (milk) cool,'' said Kurt Graetzer, executive director of the Fluid Milk Processor Education Program in Washington, D.C. ``For God's sake, if (advertising) can make bottled water cool, we better be able to do it with milk.''

So, sit up and pay attention, all you cool college students.

On Wednesday and Thursday, the ``Milk, Where's Your Mustache?'' campaign is coming to California State University, Northridge. From noon to 2 p.m., students can audition to appear in a milk advertisement in the Sundial, the campus newspaper, by having their picture taken at the Sports Illustrated Campus Fest booth.

This will be just one stop on the milk people's trip to about 100 campuses, an effort they hope will boost dairy intake among the younger set.

The oft-repeated slogan, ``Milk. It does a body good,'' that the industry used in its 1980s television campaign didn't seem to inspire the masses to order milk with their pizza and Big Macs. Despite the ads, milk sales continued to decline.

In 1980, Californians drank an average of 29 gallons of milk a year. By 1993, it had fallen to 23 gallons. Twenty years ago, people drank on average about 23 gallons of milk compared to 23 gallons of soft drinks a year. In 1995, people guzzled almost 55 gallons of soft drinks compared to only 18 to 19 gallons of milk.

To lure milk drinkers back, the California Milk Processor Board launched the ``Got Milk?'' campaign in 1993, said J.P. Theberge, account coordinator with Goodby Silverstein & Partners, a San Francisco advertising agency.

This time, they capitalized on humor to drive home the craving - no, make that the absolute necessity - for milk, especially in the company of less-than-healthful goodies such as cookies and brownies.

There is some evidence that the new ads are working. USDA figures showed the volume sales of fluid milk rose .8 percent in the first three quarters of 1996. In California, the per-capita consumption of milk has stabilized at 23 gallons.

``We consider stabilizing it to be reasonably successful for us,'' said Jeff Manning, executive director of the California Milk Processor Board in Berkeley.

For women, the decline in milk consumption starts at about age 13. For boys, it drops dramatically at about age 18 or 19.

Misconceptions about milk's fatty content may be the primary reason for the drink's unpopularity. Truth be told, 1 percent milk has only 2.5 grams of fat and 100 calories; skim milk is even better - no fat and 80 calories.

More importantly, an 8-ounce glass of milk provides 30 percent of the recommended daily allowance of calcium, 25 percent of vitamin D plus protein, vitamin B-12, potassium, niacin, vitamin A, riboflavin and phosphorous.

If you're still unconvinced, call the ``Why milk?'' hotline at [phone] and they'll tell you exactly why milk does a body good.

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2 Photos

Photo: (1--2) Celebrities donning liquid mustaches in print ads for the Fluid Milk Processor Education Program's latest ad campaign include tennis star Pete Sampras, left, and filmmaker Spike Lee.