The National Fluid Milk Processor Promotion Board's milk moustache marketing campaign featuring celebrities from HHS Secretary Donna Shalala to Baltimore Oriole star Cal Ripken has won plaudits for glamorizing the image of milk, but the Agriculture Department's Office of Inspector General, in a report released Monday, declared the campaign's management and its oversight by the Agricultural Marketing Service to be less than pure.
Congress in 1990 authorized the AMS to collect mandatory 20-cents-per-hundredweight from all dairy processors, which has amounted to $168 million since 1994.
The OIG found that neither the board nor the AMS oversaw the campaign, which was administered by Bethesda accountant Ronald Rubin and contracted to the Milk Industry Foundation and its parent, the International Dairy Foods Association.
The OIG also questioned the board's sole-source, non- competitive contract with the Bozell advertising firm and said that the board had violated federal law by not acquiring the rights to the photographs taken by celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz, even though $2.7 million was spent to take the photos.
The OIG also noted that the board has not determined whether the ad campaign has resulted in increased milk consumption.
Board Chairman Scottie Mayfield acknowledged in a telephone interview that there were some contracting irregularities in the campaign's early days, but said he was "pretty frustrated" that the OIG had suggested shutting down the board until it changes its procedures, a recommendation that the AMS has rejected.
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