Monthly Archives: March 2009

Purina Mighty Dog: What’s in the Can?

Posted on March 31, 2009 | 3 Comments

Mighty Dog ad

This is an eye-cathing ad for Purina Mighty Dog dog food. It suggests that if you feed Mighty Dog to your dog, he’ll be strong and fierce. The ad says it’s bold and meaty. But what kind of meat is in the can?

Here are the ingredients of  Purina Mighty Dog Classic Beef Dinner dog food, taken from Purina’s Mighty Dog website:

Purina® Mighty Dog® Classic Beef Dinner Dog Food

Guaranteed Analysis:

Crude Protein (Min) 10.0%
Crude Fat (Min) 7.0%
Crude Fiber (Max) 1.5%
Moisture (Max) 78.0%
Calcium (Ca) (Min) 0.25%
Phosphorus (P) (Min) 0.20%

Ingredients: Beef, water sufficient for processing, meat by-products, liver, chicken, ground rice, salt, guar gum, potassium chloride, added color (Red 3 and other color), natural and artificial flavors, carrageenan, zinc sulfate, choline chloride, sodium tripolyphosphate, Vitamin E supplement, calcium phosphate, ferrous sulfate, sodium nitrite (to promote color retention), thiamine mononitrate, Vitamin A supplement, copper sulfate, manganese sulfate, niacin, calcium pantothenate, Vitamin B-12 supplement, riboflavin supplement, pyridoxine hydrochloride, Vitamin D-3 supplement, potassium iodide, folic acid, sodium selenite, biotin.

The third listed ingredient is meat by-products. The Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) defines meat by-products as:

The non-rendered, clean parts, other than meat, derived from slaughtered mammals (enphasis mine). It includes, but is not limited to, lungs, spleen, kidneys, brain, livers, blood, bone, partially defatted low temperature fatty tissue, and stomachs and intestines freed of their contents. It does not include hair, horns, teeth and hoofs. It shall be suitable for use in animal food. If it bears name descriptive of its kind, it must correspond thereto.

Source: Wikipedia

Please take a moment to watch the following videos to learn what is in commercial dog food. In the first video, Hersh Pendell, who at the time was the president of the AAFCO, reveals that rendered products used for pet food can contain rendered cats and dogs.

WARNING: THE VIDEO BELOW MAY
BE EXTREMELY DISTURBING!

Disclaimer: Since I have been getting flamed by a number of people for this post, I  categorically state that I do not know what is in commercial dog food, nor am I saying or implying that the product Mighty Dog contains rendered pets or zoo animals. The information and opinions in the linked videos are those of the people who created them and not of the writer of this blog.

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Barber Foods Stuffed Chicken Breasts Almost Pulls It Off

Posted on March 30, 2009 | 2 Comments

Barber Foods ad

I like the image of the guy peering into the refrigerator looking for something to eat in this ad for Barber Foods Stuffed Chicken Breasts. The image would have been more effective if it was larger—the book containing the copy takes up the lower third of the ad.

The result is a visually disjointed layout that contains too many elements. In this case, they could have moved the copy to a spot over the image, and made the product shot a little smaller.

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Just For Fun: Macy’s Parade

Posted on March 29, 2009 | Leave a comment

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Microsoft Enters The Reality Business

Posted on March 28, 2009 | 1 Comment

The documentary reality show style of this commercial for Microsoft makes this an effective commercial.

Microsoft is taking advantage of the economic situation to sell value. Macs have always been overpriced compared to PCs, and in the current economic climate, the people who have money to spend at all may not be in a position to fork over the extra cash to buy a Mac.

The story goes that Microsoft’s ad agency, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, placed ads on Craigslist and other web sites looking for subjects who were willing to be involved in a research study about laptop buying decisions. Then they gave them specific amounts of money to buy a laptop and had a film crew follow them around.

Like the reality shows the commercial emulates, the reality of the story is questionable. According to the Associated Press, Lauren is “an office manager and an actress.” Reality shows are scripted. Does really anyone think that Lauren came up with the line, ”I’m just not cool enough to be a Mac person,” spontaneously?

Unfortunately for Lauren, she now owns a laptop that’s running Windows Vista, the same operating system that Microsoft has been scrambling to replace because customers don’t like it.

Oh well, it was free.

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Simply Potatoes. Simply Real.

Posted on March 27, 2009 | Leave a comment

Simply Potatoes adThese are two ads for Simply Potatoes that ran on the left and right pages of a magazine, like this:

ad_234a

I like the potato faces illustrating the headline. The headline of the second ad is hard to understand, though. It reads:

THEY DON’T
LIKE THE TASTE
OF MARGARINE,
EITHER.

Because the face on the potato isn’t apparent, it’s difficult to understand that the they being referred to are potatoes. It would have been easier to understand if they’d italicized they, like this:

THEY DON’T
LIKE THE TASTE
OF MARGARINE
EITHER.

One thing that I don’t like about this ad is something that I’ve talked about before. The authenticity bandwagon dictates that they have to say real half & half and real butter. Why not just say: “Made with half & half, not water…” and “Made with butter, not margarine…”

Using the word real doesn’t add anything. Imagine someone introducing himself to you like this:

“I’m Steve. This is my real wife, Susan. We live in a real house just outside of Boston. We have two real kids. I just bought a real SUV because we just got a real dog and our real car wasn’t big enough.”

You get the idea.

 

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Lay’s Potato Chips: Classic and Simple

Posted on March 26, 2009 | 1 Comment

ad_233

This ad for Lay’s Classic Potato Chips is impressive. The image of a happy girl eating potato chips illustrates the headline (smiling, simple ingredients) and the green field in the background suggests natural.

Of course, they don’t mention that the product is 60% fat and contains 10g of fat per serving. Maybe they should have shown an overweight  kid eating the potato chips.

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Norton Internet Security Works With Tax Software

Posted on March 24, 2009 | Leave a comment

ad_232

Symantec created this terrible ad to let people know they’re giving out rebates when people buy their Norton Internet Security 2009 program along with tax software.

Let’s look at the ad design first. There’s a guy looking at a computer. It kind of looks like he’s got a black blanket pulled up to his waste and his right hand is disappearing into the blanket. I don’t know, maybe he’s surfing porn online.

Over his head, there’s a big black blobby thing. It’s moving fast, because it has motion lines. So it’s a swiftly moving big black blobby thing.

Let’s look at the headline:

IF YOU FILE YOUR TAXES ONLINE,
YOU NEED THE SPEED
OF NORTON 2009. 

This is truly puzzling. What’s special about doing your taxes online that calls for the speed of Norton 2009? They might have just as easily said:

IF YOU LOOK FOR CHINESE FOOD RECIPES ONLINE,
YOU NEED THE SPEED
OF NORTON 2009.

After all, it makes just as much sense. The copy tells us: “Plus, you can use Silent Mode to avoid interruptions while you’re playing games, watching movies, or doing your taxes.”

It’s important to have an antivirus program that doesn’t slow your computer to a crawl, no matter what software you’re working with. Here, they’ve strained to create a relationship where there is none—in this case, there’s no relationship between tax software and fast Internet security software.

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Svedka Vodka: Make It Stop!

Posted on March 23, 2009 | 1 Comment

Svedka Vodka ad

The one good thing that I can say about this ad for Svedka Vodka is that you can’t ignore it. Unfortunately for Svedka, I’ve made a mental note to never ever buy this product.

This ad is garish, creepy, cold, and ill-conceived. It reminds me of the robot in Metropolis, but not in any meaningful way.

Metropolis

Metropolis, 1927, directed by Fritz Lang

Then there’s the headline, which has absolutely no relation to anything in the ad (come to think of it, none of the elements in this ad have any relation to each other):

man cannot live on gossip alone.

Another bit of text tells us: “Voted #1 vodka of 2033.” It’s supposed to be funny, too.

Invariably, when I write a post about an ad that sucks but calls attention to itself, someone will write a comment saying something like, “Yeah, but it made you talk about it, so it must have been effective.”

Let’s be clear. The purpose of advertising isn’t to get people talking about an ad. The purpose of advertising is to sell products.

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Just For Fun: Alka Seltzer

Posted on March 22, 2009 | Leave a comment

These are three commercial spots for Alka Seltzer, featuring silent movie comedian Buster Keaton, circa 1950.

dick_beals_1Speedy Alka Seltzer was voiced by voice actor Dick Beals, who also did the voice for Gumby when the show first aired in 1957. Beals also provided the voice for Davey in Davey and Goliath, kid voices for The Flintstones and The Jetsons (including Mr. Spacely’s son, Arthur) and many others.

Beals disclosed in his autobiography that a glandular problem caused him to not undergo puberty and was responsible for his boyish look.

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Quaker Oats Helps You Fly

Posted on March 21, 2009 | Leave a comment

Quaker Oats ad

This whimsical ad for Quaker Oats ran the length of a page in the Los Angeles Times. It has the image of a businessman flying with a jet pack made from two Quaker Oats containers.

The headline reads:

Jet in to work. Start your
day with the supergrain
power of Quaker oats.

Under the product shot, the copy reads: Go humans go.

Hey, that’s pretty funny, even with the missing comma. They also get points for the creative use of space in the ad.

Let’s give it 5 monkeys!

5_monkeys

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