Students at Brookfield Central proved last week that they not only have milk, but common sense, too. Sense enough to realize that an anti-dairy campaign by an over-the-top animal rights group is a quart or two short of a full gallon.

The group behind the campaign, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, claims it's trying to protect cows. But the kids at Brookfield Central realized right off the top that what PETA was really doing was throwing the bull.

PETA's latest anti-dairy campaign features an ad suggesting that drinking milk can lead to a bad complexion. Playing on the dairy industry's "Got Milk?" campaign, the ad asks "Got Zits?" and features a young woman with pimples, greasy hair and a milk mustache.

The ad appeared in Brookfield Central's school newspaper, Tyro. The paper was the only one to accept the ad out of dozens of school papers approached by PETA in several states. There's nothing wrong with accepting the ad, even in a state known for its dairy industry. The decision to run the ad, after all, was made by the paper's student editors after they discussed the issue at length - in the best traditions of democratic endeavors.

Besides, students interviewed by a Journal Sentinel reporter not only weren't impressed, but said they had no intention of giving up milk.

"Those animal rights people need to get a life," one student said, an argument that has been advanced before about a group that has probably done more to hurt its noble cause than help it.

Earlier this year, the same group tried to encourage college students to give up milk and drink more beer instead. That less-than-sober advice didn't sit well with Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Their very valid protests prompted PETA's leaders to abandon the ad in favor of equally questionable advertising that likened the plight of a veal calf to that of an abducted child.

Continuing that trend, PETA went back to the drawing boards and tried to persuade high school kids to give up milk by poking fun at their acne. That's always a sure way of winning over teenagers.

Appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on June 4, 2000.