GILROY
– The mission village of San Juan Bautista has been given the
unique opportunity to change its name to
”
Got Milk?
”
thanks to a recently announced publicity stunt thought up by the
California Milk Processor Board.
GILROY – The mission village of San Juan Bautista has been given the unique opportunity to change its name to “Got Milk?” thanks to a recently announced publicity stunt thought up by the California Milk Processor Board.
Mayor Priscilla Hill received a letter from the CMPB along with a T-shirt offering San Juan Bautista the chance to change its name to the popular milk promotion slogan, City Manager Larry Cain said.
“She kept the T-shirt and shredded the letter,” he said. “For a community like San Juan Bautista, with the history we have, that would be ridiculous (to change the name).”
San Juan Bautista is one of 24 small California towns the CMPB is offering a chance to change its name to the popular slogan in exchange for cash and fame. The CMPB will offer free school computers, a library expansion or a new playground in the million-dollar deal, which would include a national publicity campaign.
Several town residents said they hated the suggestion.
“They better not change the name,” said Terry Marburger, executive director of the San Juan Bautista Chamber of Commerce. “Who would want to change the name? We’re known for our beautiful mission.”
Council Member Dan Reed said he would nix the idea of selling the community’s poetic-sounding saint name for a marketing slogan.
“It’s not worth it,” he said. “We already have what we need to bring in the tourists.”
Penny House, whose family owns the San Juan Bakery, also sounded hesitant about the proposal.
“I don’t know,” she said. “I’d have to say ‘No’ to the idea.”
Mindy Kang, owner of the San Juan Inn, started laughing uproariously when she heard about the proposed name change.
“I like the name San Juan Bautista,” she said. “Would that mean I’d have to change the name of my inn to the Got Milk? Inn? I honestly cannot realistically consider changing the name.”
San Juan Bautista was named after Saint John the Baptist when Spanish padres built a mission to convert Mutsun Indians here in 1797. About a 20-minute drive south of Gilroy, the community’s small-town ambiance are San Juan Bautista’s biggest draws.
Its quaint charm has inspired artists and authors over the years. Helen Hunt Jackson began her love-story novel “Ramona” during a visit to San Juan Bautista in 1883. She wrote that “At San Juan there lingers more of an atmosphere of the olden time than is to be found in any other place in California.”
Movie director Alfred Hitchcock set key scenes of his classic thriller “Vertigo” in the mission and historic park. And Hispanic playwright Luis Valdez established his nationally-known Teatro de Campesino in the community.
So why change the town’s name to Got Milk?
“I think the publicity could be national,” explained Jeff Manning, director of the CMPB, based in Berkeley. “What I want is to be so happy to pick up a newly printed California map and run my finger down a road and see Got Milk? California.”
The board also had considered the idea of getting the slogan on a postage stamp or into the dictionary, but realized those ideas probably wouldn’t pan out as well as renaming a town, he said.
Besides San Juan Bautista, California towns being offered the name-change deal include Sand City, Colma, Colfax, Fort Jones and Biggs. And how did the “Got Milk?” slogan develop? The CMPB was established in early 1993 by California processors to help stem the decline in milk consumption and make milk more competitive against the rising soda demand. The CMPB hired advertising agency Goodby Silverstein & Partners in July 1993, and by October 1993 the “Got Milk?” campaign was launched.
A Hispanic marketing campaign followed shortly. By 1995, the ads were running nationally by way of a licensing agreement with Dairy Management Inc. In 1998, MilkPEP, the group behind the Milk Mustache campaign, also began to license the Got Milk? trademark. As a result, Got Milk? is one of the most widely recognized campaigns in advertising history.
The Associated Press contributed to this story
