A promotional film for their state infuriates Tyrolean farmers. The reason is the drink choice of the protagonist of the spot: oat milk instead of cow milk? An affront. Now the marketing organization is taking action.
The tourism marketing organization Tirol Werbung posted a commercial that had inflamed the tempers of local farmers because of an oat milk-drinking Krampus. Due to the emotional reactions, the region decided not to show the approximately one-and-a-half-minute film, explained a representative from Tirol Tourist Board.
In the film you can see the Austrian fright Krampus, who brings a little girl in a tavern her glove, which she had lost in the snow. The landlady then asks him if she can do something good for him, and he replies: “A latte macchiato with oat milk, please”. “Come as you are – everyone is welcome in Tyrol,” says the end of the commercial.
The aim of the campaign was to attract a “modern and urban clientele”, explained Patricio Hetfleisch, head of the communications department at Tirol Tourist Board. In addition, there are now many people who cannot drink cow’s milk because of lactose intolerance, he explained in the Vienna “Standard”. But the milk producers in the region saw red in the face of the “affront” against Tyrolean agriculture. After all, the farmers and their cows ensure “that the cultural landscape – which serves as the backdrop for numerous advertising videos – is as appealing to locals as it is to tourists,” explained Josef Hechenberger from the Tyrolean Chamber of Agriculture. Replacing “authentic Tyrolean milk” with oat milk is “unacceptable”. And the farmers were heard. Tirol Werbung announced that it would show more “sensitivity” in the future.
