Updated 2 June
Malta’s president Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca has added one more campaign to her list of causes to champion – drinking fresh milk.
The President appears in a Facebook post uploaded by local dairy producers Benna urging people to #drinkfresh milk. In the post, President Coleiro Preca can be seen sitting at a desk, pen in hand, with a sizeable glass of milk in front of her.
Benna’s #drinkfresh campaign has seen a variety of local celebrities, from singer Destiny to national team football Andre Schembri, pose for poster ads with a glass of fresh milk.
President Coleiro Preca featured as part of the Benna campaign to mark World Milk Day, an event established by the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation and which is celebrated on June 1 every year.
The Benna campaign borrows heavily from the California Milk Processor Board’s ‘Got Milk?’ campaign which began in the 1990s and saw several Hollywood and sports celebrities – from Harrison Ford to Jennifer Aniston and Muhammed Ali - pose for full-page ads with a milk moustache.
That campaign, however, did not feature any politicians or heads of state, and President Coleiro Preca’s decision to throw her weight behind the campaign immediately prompted controversy on Facebook.
“Tell me this is a joke,” wrote Nationalist Party MP Jason Azzopardi. “Tell me this is photoshop. Where’s the gravitas of office?”
Do you think Malta’s head of state should be campaigning for people to drink more milk? Have your say in the comments section below.