Last week, actress Aubrey Plaza took a break from her busy schedule of raking in Parks and Recreation residuals and keeping the non-Jennifer Coolidge half of White Lotus afloat to learn a tough rule about the modern internet cultures – your milk allegiances can and will get you bullied off of Instagram.


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Plaza’s newly-minted beef with eco-conscious Gen Z-ers (pun very much intended) kicked off on Thursday, April 20, when she emerged as the face of “Wood Milk” the “Got Milk” campaign’s latest effort to help get young people back on dairy.


“Have you ever looked at a tree and thought ‘Can I drink this?’” Plaza kicked off the promotional clip.


After boasting the product’s various flavors – “cherry, maple and of course mahogany,” she quipped – detailing their manufacturing process in some not-so-subtle shade at the alternative milk industry, explaining how their product is “squished into a slime that’s legal to sell,” Plaza finally hit the clip’s dragged out punchline.


“Is wood milk real? Absolutely not,” she says. ”Only real milk is real.”



Yet, those five words managed to do a whole lot more than cap off the try-hard commercial – inciting an army of frustrated young people to her comment section. Plaza was forced to turn off her Instagram comments, the YouTube channel for Wood Milk shortly followed suit.


Yet, even with these deterrents, several fans took to both Wood Milk’s Instagram page and Plaza’s posts where comments were still allowed to express their dairy disdain.



“Aubrey, no. you’re smarter than this,” wrote @karenleelindsay.


“Why go this hard to make fun of people who can’t drink milk? Idgi,” asked @drink_water_t.


“The dairy & livestock industries are primary drivers of deforestation globally—so this project, though well-intended (tree-planting-wise), is pretty ironic,” mused @eaudaimonia.



Meanwhile, others took to TikTok to share their frustration.


“Aubrey, no.” quipped TikTok creator @jennystojkovic. “Why on earth are you getting in bed with ‘Got Milk?’ Nobody likes milk. Like, literally nobody.”



While it seems we may never know Plaza’s motives for shilling dairy milk (though we suspect the endeavor may have literally and metaphorically served as a cash cow), one thing is certain. To paraphrase @tilllathahun in one of their viral comments on wood milk’s post –  “Nice try corporate milk.”