Swedish Milk, a Swedish Duty: Dairy Marketing in the 1920s and 1930s

Abstract

On basis of the argument ‘Better milk – increased consumption’ the Swedish association, ‘The Milk Propaganda’, managed to frame a milk marketing project in which economic interests were intertwined with references to public health and the survival of the Swedish countryside. The very idea of marketing milk, building on its quality and health, was presented as mutually beneficial for producers and consumers, and for the entire Swedish society. In the 1920s and 30s the project was visible through posters, a journal, milk restaurants and school campaigns. The story includes fascinating encounters between rurality and urbanity, materialised through milk. During the economic crisis around 1930 milk marketing became aggressive and consumers were urged to consume as much dairy produce as possible in order to fulfil their national duty to help save farmers and the countryside.

Recontextualizing Swedish nationalism for commercial purposes: a multimodal analysis of a milk marketing event

“…In addition to producing an image of a modern and well-managed organization, the use of regulatory discourse creates a space of control and order. The mode of control has been central in the Swedish marketing of dairy products since the emergence of the Swedish welfare state, often expressed, as with Arla, in terms of safety, cleanliness and good hygiene (Jönsson, 2005;Martiin, 2010). Milk is promoted as nature's product, but also as a source of raw material.…”

“…In most western societies during the 1920s and 1930s, dairy marketing projects were connected with the construction of the modern nation. Often, as in Sweden, this was intertwined with political ambitions to improve both the rural economy and public health (Martiin, 2010). In the 1920s milk propaganda in Sweden positioned milk within contemporary scientific and health and hygiene discourses.…”

“…Whiteness was considered a symbol of modernity, purity, hygiene, progress, order and social status (Jönsson, 2005;Torell, 2005) and as such associated with the white body. Milk branded as hygienicwhite and clean in opposition to the often unsanitary conditions that characterized much of everyday life at the time (Martiin, 2010), became also a means to propagate the superiority of the white race. The north European white body was described as capable of digesting lactose unlike people from other countries and with other ethnicities; successful in science, trading, art and literature as well as having a low child mortality rate were all phenomena that became connected to milk consumption as part of milk propaganda (DuPuis, 2002;Jönsson, 2005).…”

Political ecology of milk: Contested futures of a lively food

“…Valenze (2011) demonstrates how government and corporate interventions have sought to position milk as part of a “nutritional social contract.” Mendelson (2013) explores how milk’s cultural prominence enabled the overbreeding of cows and overprocessing of dairy products. Others have discussed how the story of fresh milk is enmeshed in socio-technical arrangements that have driven social change in rural and urban areas of the US and EU ( Atkins, 2010 ; Freidberg, 2009 ; Martin, 2010 ). With case studies of 21st century India and China, Wiley (2011 , 2014 ) has demonstrated that notions of affluence and modernity drove recent surges in milk consumption, with the state backing dairy marketing campaigns in efforts to literally grow the nation by nourishing children.…”

From organized to disorganized capitalism? Market versus nonmarket coordination in Spain's dairy chain

“…Before going any further in the theoretical analysis of this narrative, it may be useful to illustrate the content embodied in expressions such as “organized capitalism” and “disorganized capitalism.” We will do so by taking the case of the dairy chain in the West as an illustration (the following is based on Moser & Brodbeck, , for Switzerland; DuPuis, , for the United States; Atkins, , Fenton, , and Vernon, , for Britain; Just, , Kjaernes, , and Martiin, , for Scandinavia; Vatin, , for France and Germany; Orland, , for Central Europe; den Hartog, , for the Netherlands; Segers & Lefebvre, , for Belgium; Felice, , for Italy; and Freire, , for Portugal). During the interwar period, most countries implemented active measures in order to manage the dairy chain.…”