🥛 Got milk? Gen Z does not.

Two years ago, Clubhouse was the darling of social media. “Darling” isn’t even sufficient here, really — they got Oprah to do an exclusive interview.

The audio chatroom app attracted top talent, registered ~10m users, and raised $310m.

But life comes at you fast on the internet, where success often breeds success — for other companies, who produce their own resource-rich version of your most unique features.

Clubhouse spawned audio hangout products from Meta, Reddit, and Spotify, among others, and…

Clubhouse is actually still here; its rivals are not

Some credit is due here: Clubhouse remains in operation, officially outlasting its deep-pocketed challengers.

• Reddit talked its last Talk last month.
• Meta’s social audio products were just wiped off the Facebook app.
• This week saw Spotify Live (née Greenroom) shuttered as a stand-alone app.

Twitter Spaces, another product of the Clubhouse boom, may or may not have life in it, depending on how Twitter’s chief executive feels today.

If only that’s where the story ended

There’s still hope inside Clubhouse — they’ve changed strategy, waving off “broadcasting” to focus on smaller, private groups.

• For a social platform, it’s relatively lean at ~100 employees — and claims to have “years of cash in the bank,” per Bloomberg.

But every time we’ve checked the app this week, it’s been quiet… eerily so. And there’s good reason — according to CBS News, Clubhouse is down to 200k monthly users.

Plus, it’s hard to ignore the leadership exodus. Gone over the last year, per The Information, include the heads of: Strategic Partnerships, Monetization, Global Marketing, International, News, Sports, and Brand Development. Ouch.

Some great publications have pondered the idea that social audio is already dead. They may have a point.

On a November evening in the early 1970s, Becky Schroeder waited in the dimming light of a department store parking lot for what felt like hours.

She had a math assignment to finish, but it was too dark to see the paper resting on her lap.

That’s when a lightbulb turned on, the one inside her head: What if her paper could glow?

In the coming years, Schroeder would be featured in newspapers, magazines, and TV segments across the country as the youngest female inventor in the US.

NASA would inquire about her, the restaurant industry would use her innovations, and generations of young inventors would see her as an inspiration.

But as she waited for her mother in the parking lot, Schroeder didn’t know any of that yet. She just knew she had to finish her homework.

Remember that carton of milk you had to drink at school lunch every day lest your bones crumble to dust? Well, Gen Z ain’t into it.

A generation not subjected to the once-ubiquitous Got Milk? campaign, Gen Z is more into the growing list of milk alternatives or beverages that contain no milk at all, per The New York Times.

They bought 20% less milk than the national average in 2022, though they do consume yogurt, cheese, and other dairy products.

What’s wrong with milk?

Well, ~30-50m Americans are lactose intolerant, and the likelihood increases among those of African, Hispanic, Asian, and American Indian descent. Gen Z is more diverse than previous generations. Plus:

• They didn’t love the skim and low-fat milks served in schools (which, it turns out, are not better for you than whole milk).
• They worry about the dairy industry’s impact on climate change.
• Big Milk is apparently a big liar; milk isn’t as crucial for bones as previously thought.

There’s also “milk shame,” which refers to the stigma that it’s weird for adults to enjoy plain milk.

In media, villains love milk, from A Clockwork Orange, to “The Boys” and Get Out. The latter’s director, Jordan Peele, said, “There’s something kind of horrific about milk.”

Could milk be the new Gatorade?

Some studies suggest chocolate milk’s composition promotes post-workout muscle recovery, leading campaigns to position it as a sports drink.

But if the idea of crushing a creamy pint after a run curdles your stomach, the NYT didn’t quite buy it either, instead positing that milk — like many things — may come back around without splashy campaigns, thanks to its wholesome simplicity.