Coca-Cola's Fairlife foray into dairy dubbed 'franken-milk'

Esther Han
February 5, 2015
The Age


Fairlife milk products appear on display in the dairy section of an Indianapolis grocery store. Fairlife milk products appear on display in the dairy section of an Indianapolis grocery store.Photo: AP
The fizzy drink behemoth has made its first foray into the dairy market, releasing a “premiumised” milk it claims has double the protein and half the sugar of the conventional sort.Coca-Cola sure believes it knows how to milk it.
It has been derided as “franken-milk” by some, but Coca-Cola strongly believes shoppers are willing to shell out twice as much for Fairlife whole milk and its three spin-offs – reduced fat, fat-free and chocolate.
It will “rain money” on Coca-Cola, global chief customer officer Sandy Douglas let slip at the end of last year.
“I hope it’s Coke’s next billion-dollar brand,” Fairlife’s chief executive Steve Jones told USA Today.
Bottles of Fairlife recently hit the shelves of select supermarkets in the United States. There are no plans yet to bring it to Australia, a spokeswoman told Fairfax Media.
The designer drink is made by “ultra-filtering” cows’ milk and splitting it into five parts – water, butterfat, protein, vitamins and minerals, and lactose – and recombining them in the preferred way. Lactose is eliminated altogether.
The diversification is being seen as a desperate move by a company that has built its legacy on fizzy, sugary products struggling with declining soft drink sales in the US.
Social media reaction to the news has so far been mixed. “Coke is making milk. Eww,” wrote one Twitter user. “Just finished drinking. Excellent very smooth and creamy,” another tweeted.
Taste tests of the “designer” milk are appearing online. Some say the milk has a strange aftertaste.
“It looks and feels a little thicker than traditional milk, and has a slightly richer taste, especially the chocolate milk, which sits on the spectrum between chocolate shake and milk that’s stewed on a lazy Saturday morning in a bowl of Cocoa Puffs,” wrote Chris Plante on website The Verge.
“Fairlife’s aftertaste is less appealing. A few minutes sipping a cup of chocolate Fairlife and then a cup of two per cent Fairlife, the inside of my mouth had that malty feel that chases a protein shake.”
The soda giant has copped ridicule for the product, with comedian Stephen Colbert joking when the news first emerged: “It’s like they got Frankenstein to lactate” to produce “extra expensive science milk.”
It was also criticised for its sexist advertisements, reports The Guardian. Early promos featured nude women covered by milk splashes in the shape of dresses with the line: “Better milk looks good on you”.
No milk moustaches in sight.
A marketing campaign will be rolled out across the US in a couple of months.