Hansen’s Dairy is attempting to reintroduce milk as a sexy beverage.
And what better way to do it than with a parody of the legendary “Flashdance” water-splashing dance scene?
The Iowa dairy recently released a video introducing its new 2% option by recreating a classic movie scene — but with milk.
“This is the first new product we’ve had in quite a while, so we wanted to literally make a splash with the announcement,” says Marketing Director Jordan Hansen, whose husband, Blake, co-owns the creamery with his three brothers.
The video shows Blake standing in the cows’ corral, imitating some of the film’s legendary jumps and positions, such as the chair-dancing scene and the landmark close-up of rapid stomping feet — but with Blake’s work boots and grey duct tape replacing the film’s bare feet and dancer’s toe tape.
Blake hooked a 5-gallon bucket to a skid loader and tied a piece of string that he tugged to discharge the cascading milk to mimic the well-known water-splashing.
“Considering we’d never done anything like that before,” Hansen adds, “it worked out really well.” “And we were lucky because it only took one take.”
While Blake is all smiles in the final edit, Hansen says he needed some persuading before filming began.
“At first, he was like, no, I don’t dance with chairs,” she explains. “He’s not always willing to make a fool of himself, but he’s a good sport in these situations.”
More:The Iowa Legislature finally approves the selling of raw milk.
The “Flashdance” video followed another amusing video broadcast by the dairy in November, in which Blake dressed as Cousin Eddie from “Christmas Vacation” cleaned out the cows’ manure hole.
“That really opened our eyes to the reach we could get from doing videos of the farm and educating people about farm life in a funny way,” Hansen recalls. “That was also the start of Blake being willing to do something ridiculous.”
How the films were created by Hansen’s Dairy
Hansen’s Dairy, an Iowa Heritage Farm that has been held by the same family for 150 years or more, has been expanding its products and portfolio since the early 2000s, when the four Hansen brothers decided they all wanted to relocate back to the farm and establish families.
However, in order for the farm to feed four expanding families, they needed to expand on the typical dairy farm model of selling milk to a co-op. As a result, in 2004, they established their own creamery, where they create milk, cream, cheese curds, butter, and ice cream, which they sell in their two retail stores and distribute across eastern Iowa.
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They also raise Wagyu-Holstein cows for beef and have opened their farm to agritourism, welcoming approximately 9,000 visitors per year to learn about the work that goes into the milk in their cereal bowl and to pet the farm’s six kangaroos, the dairy’s mascots, which Blake acquired during a trip to Australia.
Hansen’s Dairy now employs all four brothers, their families, and additional 40 people. Hansen adds that when the marketing staff is brainstorming new video concepts, “everyone gets in on the fun.”
During the film shot, Joelle, the curious cow, eats a prop.
She claims that most of their ideas originate from someone just stating a hilarious movie line and the others bouncing it around until they come up with a sketch. In addition to “Flashdance” and “Christmas Vacation,” they’ve parodied “Jerry McGuire” and are working on “Napoleon Dynamite.”
However, apart from the amusement, the dairy is also attempting to reach a younger generation with its movies in an effort to reverse the drop in milk consumption, which has been “trending downward for more than 70 years,” according to the USDA.
“It feels like we’ve lost a generation of milk drinkers, whether it’s because of the rise of plant milks or simply because there are so many other beverage options on the shelf,” Hansen says.
Jesup drinks milk from the 5-gallon bucket used for the video filming.
“There’s this notion that milk is no longer sexy, which is why we’re making fun of it,” she says. “We just want to drive home the point that milk is nutritious, natural, good for you, affordable, and readily available in order to get people to remember to put dairy back into their diet.”
Follow Hansen’s Dairy on its eponymous Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok as well as on its YouTube Channel, HansensLegendairy.
