Cow's Milk Is Back (In The Same Way Cigarettes Are)

We’re all familiar with the irony of everyone who drinks oat milk. We’ll eat a cheese platter, yogurt, and ice cream, but turn our backs on dairy when it comes to our coffees. According to The New York Times, Generation Z purchased “20 percent less milk than the national average,” in 2022. However, most urbanites don’t need data to know the grip oat milk has on our iced coffee habits.

A cigarette and a coffee have been a classic way to start your morning across generations. That is until “healthier” substitutes like vaping and plant-based milk alternatives (PBAs) became trendy. Now, everyone goes to their local cafe to get an iced oat latte, so it’s no surprise your barista shoots you a side eye when you order “regular” milk. Cow’s milk hasn’t been regular for a few years now.

Among a generation increasingly aware of sustainability and animal welfare issues, PBAs were bound to become popular. Yet, the less-discussed concept of milk shame has also played a big role in their success. Nearly 49% of Gen Z feel ashamed to order cow’s milk publicly. To add, 29% of them admit to ordering PBAs in public but consume regular milk at home. Young adults have been quick to conform to the new social norms, even if it means adding $0.70 to their order.

If you drink cow’s milk, people see you as childish and obedient. Milk is a symbol of fertility, it can’t be helped.

In pop culture, a glass of milk is often consumed by evil characters, such as Alex DeLarge in Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange (1971) and Rose in Jordan Peele’s Get Out (2017). Milk’s symbols of youth and maternity quickly sour when these sociopathic characters pour themselves a glass.

Thankfully, millennials made veganism more accessible in the early 2010s, and almond and oat milk were there to save us. Plant-based milk turned into a symbol of adulthood, the freedom of choice, and even a political symbol. If you were someone who hated drinking milk growing up, it became an act of rebellion. And if you didn’t care for any of that but heard milk made you bloated and gave you acne, you were even more susceptible to jumping on the trend.

Alison Williams enjoying a glass of milk as Rose Armitage in Get Out ( 2017)

All this pushback against dairy has made me feel like we’re coming full circle now— dairy is becoming nostalgic. It would only take one person in someone’s friend group to stand against milk shame and say they had a glass and “felt completely fine.” Three simple words for everyone else to revert to it as well. This will be especially true for non-vegan and lactose-tolerant consumers who realize one glass of oat milk is contradicting their meat-eating habits.

In 2024, I think everyone will be done with seeing substitutes as healthier than the original products. We’re oversaturated with being told what to buy by our favourite influencers and slowly moving away from our 20-step skincare routines. As a generation, Gen Z is growing older and experiencing the rising costs of living. Going back to basics will become the new counter-culture.

People say Big Dairy needs to make big advertising moves, like the iconic Got Milk? campaigns, to grasp Gen Z’s attention. However, I have a feeling the interest in cow’s milk will happen naturally, as an act of rebellion against our oversaturated lives and as a natural part of the trend cycle. Oat milk is now basic, therefore cow’s milk is now cool.

So, back to cigarettes. “How exactly are cow’s milk and cigarettes related?”, you may be asking yourself. To that, I say one word: sex. The perfect accessory to a picture, cigarettes have always been the centre of attention to a generation that fills their Pinterest boards with hot people smoking them.

Gisele Bündchen in a Got Milk? ad campaign from 2001.

In the past three years, we’ve seen the return of the ‘90s, the early 2000s, and now the 2010s. With that, cow’s milk and cigarettes are making their return (even though they never left).

Jeremy Allen White and Rosalía on one of their romantic smoke breaks together. November 2023.