Annals of Marketing – Indy 500 Milk Cartons

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Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) said today that the American Dairy Association Indiana and Prairie Farms Dairy are collaborating to bring Indianapolis 500-branded milk pints and cartons to fans across the Midwest. The tradition of drinking milk after winning the Indianapolis 500 goes back to 1936 when Louis Meyer, an avid drinker of buttermilk, requested a bottle after winning his third Indy 500. As the story goes, a dairy industry executive saw the newsreel footage of the iconic moment and requested milk be made available to the winner of each Indianapolis 500 thereafter.

IMS said that “More than 13,000 retailers across Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Illinois, Missouri and Wisconsin will be stocked with 16-ounce pints celebrating five winners of The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.”

Each milk type will have a different Indy 500 winner, allowing fans to collect them all:

• 2% reduced-fat milk features back-to-back winner and defending winner Josef Newgarden (2023, 2024).
• Whole vitamin D milk features two-time Indy 500 winner Takuma Sato (2017, 2020).
• Premium chocolate milk features 2018 Indy 500 winner Will Power.
• 1% low-fat chocolate milk features four-time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves (2001, 2002, 2009, 2021).
• Premium strawberry milk features 2022 Indy 500 winner Marcus Ericsson.

Fans can expect to find these pint bottles in retail locations for a six-week distribution window beginning this week.

In addition to the collectible pint bottles, approximately 80 million half-pint cartons decorated with a graphic in celebration of Winners Drink Milk will be distributed to schools throughout the same eight states.

“At IMS, we know winners drink milk,” INDYCAR and IMS President J. Douglas Boles said. “These milk pints and cartons are another way our fans can be part of the Race Day excitement and celebrate like an Indy 500 champion.”