--- title: Got PMS? Milk Marketers Launch an Audacious, Funny New Ad Campaign description: Starting this week, an eyebrow-raising ad campaign will take on one of the last taboos of America's media landscape: menstruation. 7141010 canonical: https://time.com/archive/7141010/got-pms-milk-marketers-launch-an-audacious-funny-new-ad-campaign/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2011-07-15T18:15:20.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-16T10:55:20.829Z article:section: Health og:title: Got PMS? Milk Marketers Launch an Audacious, Funny New Ad Campaign og:description: Starting this week, an eyebrow-raising ad campaign will take on one of the last taboos of America's media landscape: menstruation. 7141010 og:url: https://time.com/archive/7141010/got-pms-milk-marketers-launch-an-audacious-funny-new-ad-campaign/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt430cecbad3b470f4/698a9456011682cf7398bf98/healthland_milkpms_0715.jpg?branch=production&width=640&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: healthland_milkpms_0715 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Got PMS? Milk Marketers Launch an Audacious, Funny New Ad Campaign twitter:description: Starting this week, an eyebrow-raising ad campaign will take on one of the last taboos of America's media landscape: menstruation. 7141010 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt430cecbad3b470f4/698a9456011682cf7398bf98/healthland_milkpms_0715.jpg?branch=production&width=640&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Health](/section/health/) # Got PMS? Milk Marketers Launch an Audacious, Funny New Ad Campaign by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) Jul 15, 2011 6:15 PM UTC  by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) Jul 15, 2011 6:15 PM UTC Starting this week, an eyebrow-raising ad campaign will take on one of the last taboos of America’s media landscape: menstruation.more Though anything to do with periods is still often considered a gross-out, the California Milk Processor Board is betting you’ll chuckle at a “funny, good-natured” take on premenstrual syndrome (PMS) — the cluster of symptoms that commonly precede menstruation. PMS symptoms often include emotional sensitivity, irritability, bloating, breast tenderness and abdominal pain. “Milk,” the new ads claim, “can help reduce the symptoms of PMS.” The [New York _Times_ reports](http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/11/business/media/campaign-says-got-pms-get-milk.html): --- > “” --- Ads often then direct viewers to visit the campaign’s website, [everythingidoiswrong.org](http://everythingidoiswrong.org/#/) — a humorous help page, purportedly for men trying to handle their PMS-afflicted partners. The ad campaign was designed for the milk processors by San Francisco’s Goodby, Silverstein & Partners — the advertising agency that also created the famous “Got milk?” campaign in 1993, according to the _Times_. This latest campaign will include traditional ad formats like billboards, posters and radio ads, but also add Internet banner ads, online videos, and social media presence. As for the central premise of the ad campaign, there is at least some evidence — although it’s not overwhelming — that drinking milk could help ease the symptoms of PMS. On its [gotmilk.com](http://gotmilk.com/#/benefits/pms/info/) website, the California Milk Processor Board claims the following: --- > “” --- The study behind that calcium-PMS claim can be found [here](http://www.gotmilk.com/pdf/PMSstudy%5Fs.pdf), and it does indeed show that, among PMS-suffering women, 55% of those randomly assigned to take daily calcium supplements showed substantial improvement in PMS symptoms after three months. But that still means, of course, that 45% taking calcium did not show much improvement. What’s more, about a third of women who _didn’t_ take calcium also got better over time, experiencing substantial improvements in symptoms without the supplements. So taking calcium probably does help overall, yes. But it may not help everyone, and for some people it does help it may not help much. Furthermore, it’s worth remembering that the evidence behind the new advertising claims comes from studies done with calcium _supplements_, not actual milk. Milk is, without a doubt, among the most calcium-rich foods and drinks in our diet. But 1,200 mg of calcium — the dose given in the PMS study — is a fair bit. To get that much daily from milk [you’d need to drink](http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/dairy-and-egg-products/74/2) about four 8-oz. (250-ml) glasses of nonfat or low-fat milk every day (even more than that, if you’re drinking full-fat milk). That’s about 400 calories’ worth in total — and may itself lead to some bloating or stomach cramps. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7141010/got-pms-milk-marketers-launch-an-audacious-funny-new-ad-campaign/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7141010/got-pms-milk-marketers-launch-an-audacious-funny-new-ad-campaign/"},"headline":"Got PMS? 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