In South Korea, one of the world’s most rapidly aging societies, 1.67 million people aged 65 and above live completely alone. As this number rises, more and more of the elderly endure social isolation and its adverse health effects. Unable to receive timely help, many die a painful, lonely death, referred to in Korean as ‘Godok-Sah’ or the phenomenon of ‘unattended death.’ This refers to the instance of the body being found days, weeks, sometimes months later. In 2020 alone, there were more than 1300 such case across the country.

Maeil Dairies, one of South Korea's largest producers of dairy products, sought to address this worsening social issue.The objective was not only to prevent cases of unattended death but to help the elderly stay healthy.

Maeil Dairies values CSR and is often looking for long-term, sustainable ways to address social concerns across South Korea. As a consumer driven brand the company has embarked on several CSR initiatives including the production of special milk powder for children suffering from congenital metabolic disorders. As a result consumers have over the years come to associate the Maeil brand with interventions to address social issues. With the an ever-growing number of unattended deaths across the rapidly aging country, the brand embarked on the 'Greeting Milk' campaign aiming not only to prevent cases of unattended death but to help the elderly stay healthy.

In the aftermath of the Korean War, milk was one of the few easily accessible sources of nutrition. Daily milk intake became a familiar routine for Korean consumers over subsequent decades. Each household came to have a milk pouch. These pouches were usually hung outside homes for milk delivery drivers to leave cartons of milk. Maeil Dairies has an established milk delivery network and the company decided to repurpose daily milk delivery as a way to check up on the wellbeing of elderly residents living on their own.

Every day, a free carton of ‘Greeting Milk’ is delivered into an elderly resident’s milk pouch. If the resident does not take the milk and the cartons pile up over two or more days, the milk delivery driver contacts the local community center. This alerts health workers and allows them to check-in with the resident and ensure their safety.

Public health workers are usually tasked with visiting the elderly in single-person households but the government resources and spending has not kept up with the rising number of such households. This is where Maeil Dairies decided to address the issue. Starting in Seoul, host to the highest number of elderly single-person households in the country, the company gathered lists of elderly residents living on their own from NGOs and government offices. Those who agreed to participate in the initiative became the beneficiaries of a free supply of fresh milk.

The ‘Greeting Milk’ campaign thus came into being. It is an elderly care system that utilizes daily milk delivery into the milk pouch as a respectful, non-intrusive way of checking up on the health and safety of those aged 65 and above living on their own.

The initiative started 7 years ago and grew steadily over the years. Eventually 30 districts in Seoul and 200 milk delivery drivers became involved. However, given the yearly uptick in unattended deaths, Maeil Dairies wanted to expand this campaign and to direct public attention to the worsening trend across the country. The company decided to create a campaign film to share stories of the elderly beneficiaries of the 'Greeting Milk' campaign over digital platforms to raise awareness about the issue of elderly loneliness, isolation and unattended death.

The campaign film collected more than 15 million views on digital platforms, a number greater than 20 percent of the country’s population. South Koreans on Instagram and Twitter created upwards of 3,500 posts generating close to 100 million KRW in earned media for the campaign.

Greater interest in the issue of elderly isolation resulted in an increase of 138 percent in personal donations to the campaign. The 'Greeting Milk' campaign has now spread to 31 cities across South Korea.

Through the ‘Greeting Milk’ campaign, a total of 18 case of cartons piling up in milk pouches were reported to community centers in 2021. This enabled timely interventions by health workers to ensure the safety of residents on multiple occasions.

The awareness of Maeil Dairies' CSR activity increased twice as much from last year going from 11% to 25%.