Has Advertising Gone to the Dogs?

October 19, 2011 at 11:00 am by Ted Mininni

In their haste to develop striking new advertising, marketers are working overtime to create ground-breaking ads; but might those ads totally miss the mark?

Case in point: Nestle, the world’s largest food company and one of the largest sellers of pet food, has just debuted a new Beneful ad in Austria filled with high-pitched whistles and sounds that only dogs can hear. Apparently, Nestle’s marketers think dogs will charge to TV sets to take in the 23 second spots and likely get their masters’ attention in the process. After all, dogs can’t buy their own food; their owners need to do that for them.

This begs the question: can clever creative go so far out of bounds, it won’t work? A spokeswoman for Nestle was quoted as saying that the company wanted to create an ad both pets and their owners could enjoy together. Okay, so we know that it’s important for brands to create positive experiences with consumers, but are dogs consumers? Will they, like children, nudge the buyers in the family to purchase the brands they prefer?

This is a bit of a stretch. Is it too crazy to work? Or should positive brand experiences be extended to pets when those brands pertain to them?

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Has Advertising Gone to the Dogs?

October 19, 2011 at 11:00 am by Ted Mininni

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