Calif. Milk Ads Filmed in New Zealand

(MYFOX NATIONAL) - The California Milk Advisory Board is planning new commercials touting California milk from California cows. But the ads will be shot in New Zealand, according to the Los Angeles Times .

Their latest ad campaign claims that "great milk comes from happy cows, happy cows come from California." In January, the Board plans to shoot some of the 10 California "Happy Cows" TV commercials in Auckland -- the sister city of California's entertainment industry hub.

New Zealand's low production costs have enticed the entertainment industry to move some of its production to that country recently, prompting California to offer film tax incentives to try to reverse the trend that has caused the loss of thousands of jobs in the Los Angeles area.

The financial incentives introduced by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, however, don't pertain to commercials which aren't eligible for the credits.

"Obviously, the governor prefers that everyone produce their film, television and other projects in California," said Camille Anderson, spokeswoman for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

But the dairy industry has fallen on hard times recently and said the decision is based out of necessity.

"It was a no-brainer," Michael Freeman, the board's vice president of advertising, told the Times. "The dairy industry is facing the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. We have a fiduciary responsibility to spend their hard-earned dollars as efficiently as we can. In this particular case, we found significant cost savings by shooting a portion of this product overseas."

The Board's most famous ad campaign, "Got Milk?" , has been running since 1993 and was named one of the 10 best commercials of all-time by a USA Today poll in 2002.