Excerpted from Dog Food Logic, by Linda P. Case, M.S.
We cannot discuss pet food marketing without examining tactics that appeal to emotions – most specifically to the love that we feel for all dogs in general and for our own dog(s) in particular. Emotional appeals are ubiquitous in the advertising campaigns of all types of products and are especially influential in the advertising campaigns of all types of products and are especially influential when it comes to dogs. In fact, the challenge lies more in finding a dog food advertisement that does not have an emotional component than identifying those that do. The most obvious forms of emotional appeal are those commercials and advertisements that depict happy dogs spending time with loving owners. Depending on the target audience, these ads may show active owners hiking or playing on the beach with their dogs, a child snuggling in to sleep at night with her puppy or a family picnicking and throwing a ball for their dog.
Similar to the appeal to authority, marketing campaigns that are based upon emotions are not inherently misleading or false. However, when an advertising campaign relies only on the emotions that it elicits to convince us that the product is healthful for our dogs (and superior to its competitor), they neglect to provide the actual evidence for why we should believe this to be true. And, of course, your emotional reaction to the advertisement does not necessarily have any bearing on the truth or falsity of the nutritional claims that are being made for that food. Marketing strategies that rely principally upon evoking the “Awww” response are hoping that consumers are so overcome with soppiness that we neglect to examine the actual merits of the food. As we saw in Chapter 2, most of us are not consciously aware of how strongly our emotions affect our decisions. This can leave us vulnerable to being manipulated by clever, emotionally-appealing ad campaigns.
Emotional appeals are not limited to just the love that we feel for dogs. Other emotional responses can also sell dog food. Sympathy and empathy are evoked when pet food companies include shelter or rescue pets in their advertising campaigns. A brilliant example of this was used by Pedigree in a series of shelter dog commercials that aired in 2010. Each opened with a close-up shot of a sweet-looking dog sitting in a kennel at an animal shelter. People visiting the shelter walked by his kennel without speaking to or interacting with the dog. The narrator then states that for very bag of Pedigree purchased they will donate a portion of the proceeds to their adoption fund, which will lead to more dogs (like Muffin, in this commercial) being adopted into loving homes. Again, there is nothing inherently wrong with appealing to emotion, and certainly not with a company’s charitable fund to help homeless dogs. Still, should one’s logical brain happen to kick in, it would remind you that you can directly donate to shelter groups and rescue organizations of your choice (i.e., without buying this particular food), thus freeing you to purchase a bag of food based upon it nutritional value rather than upon an appeal to your sympathies. Another emotional appeal that is used, albeit less commonly, is pride (also called the appeal to snobbery). This is evoked by campaigns that flatter us by telling us how smart, cool, attractive and superior as pet owners we will be (like the people in the commercial) if we feed their food. The bottom line is that almost all effective advertisements appeal to our emotions in some fashion or another. Just be aware that this is occurring, that it is intentional and designed to sell food to you, and often has no bearing whatsoever upon the quality of the dog food that is being promoted.
Need help choosing a food for your dog? Want assistance wading through the ads, labels, hype and information bombarding you every day? Learn what matters most by reading Dog Food Logic. Buy it today from Whole Dog Journal.
