Dive Brief:

• The National Dairy Council is airing TV commercials featuring athletes consuming chocolate milk. It's part of an effort to boost sales by promoting the use of chocolate milk as a sports drink.
• The ad campaign follows a series of university studies that suggest chocolate milk is superior to other beverages in helping a body recovery from exercise. Those studies have generated considerable attention in social media and elsewhere — notably the book "The First 20 Minutes," by New York Times writer Gretchen Reynolds.
• The campaign comes amid a two-decade long steady decline in milk consumption in the United States.

Dive Insight:

We first came across the chocolate-milk-instead-of-Gatorade idea in Ms. Reynolds' book. We tried it, and we've stuck with it. Chocolate milk works just fine for us after a workout. Of course we're not world-class athletes. And we love everything about the less-is-more ethos that permeates Ms. Reynolds' work. 

We do have two questions, however. First, are there enough athletes out there to compensate for the decline in milk drinking among all other demographics? Second, is there any chance an idea like this might work to boost sales of diet soda? Those folks are getting desperate.