[nagdu] Fw: Freshpet Dog Food Promotes Products Sourced in U.S..

[Ed Meskys]

I am pretty sure I AMs is made in the US and safe. Ed
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Louis" <gosselin_louis at myfairpoint.net>
To: "'Ed Meskys'" <edmeskys at roadrunner.com>
Sent: Friday, June 14, 2013 9:03 AM
Subject: Freshpet Dog Food Promotes Products Sourced in U.S..


ADVERTISING.
Freshpet Dog Food Promotes Products Sourced in U.S..
NY Times Friday, 2013_06_14
By ANDREW ADAM NEWMAN. IN 2006, when Freshpet introduced dog food that 
required
refrigeration,
a novelty in the pet food aisle, retailers were skeptical that they should
remodel
to accommodate the free refrigerators the brand offered. But after 
widespread
pet
food recalls in 2007 linked to contaminated wheat gluten from China, 
consumers
and
retailers both warmed to the brand's promise of fresh ingredients without
preservatives,
and distribution today has grown to about 9,200 stores, including Walmart,
Target,
Whole Foods and Petco.
Commercials for Freshpet over the last three years have featured dogs with
placards
hanging from their necks, the messages occasionally relating to their 
breeds,
like
'Pug off, preservatives' and 'Propylene Glycol is Shih Tzu.
A new Freshpet commercial takes a patriotic turn, with an American flag 
backdrop
and 'The Battle Hymn of the Republic' playing. It opens with a Portuguese 
water
dog
(the same breed as Bo, the first family's dog) wearing a placard that says, 
'I
want
veggies from Virginia.
Other alliterative signs also highlight that the brand uses domestic
ingredients,
including a beagle who wants chicken from Charleston and a Weimaraner who 
wants
beef
from Boise.
Do you know where the ingredients in your dog food come from? asks a 
voice-over.
We make Freshpet from fresh meats and fresh veggies farmed right here in the
U.S.A.
The spot closes with the slogan: 'Freshpet, fresh food for Fido.
The commercial will be introduced Monday and will run widely, including 
during
the
Macy's Fourth of July fireworks broadcast on NBC.
The campaign, which also includes online and print advertising, is by the 
Terri
&
Sandy Solution in New York. Guerrilla marketing posters feature figures from
American
history, including a painting of Abraham Lincoln and his dog, with the text, 
'If
you said Honest Abe fed his pooch processed foreign ingredients, he would 
call
you
a liar.
Freshpet will spend an estimated $10 million on the campaign.
While the brand and the agency dismissed the device of talking dogs as 
gimmicky,
ascribing thoughts to them with the placards was a way 'of letting dogs 
speak
out,'
said Sandy Greenberg, a founder of the Terri & Sandy Solution.
With no people in the commercial and only dogs looking into the camera, 
added
Terri
Meyer, the other agency founder, the perspective of the viewer mirrors that 
of
dog
owners accustomed to intent canine gazes.
If you don't show an owner with the pet, you can be the owner of the pet,' 
Ms.
Meyer
said. You can put yourself in that situation with the dog.
Cameron Woo, publisher of The Bark, a quarterly dog magazine, said that 
having
only
dogs in the commercial also underscored that it was advertising a pet 
product,
which
is not always obvious nowadays.
It's a creative distinction, because there are so many products that don't 
have
anything
to do with dogs but have dogs in their commercials to sell cars, beer,
anything,'
Mr. Woo said.
The pet food maker Merrick also promotes American ingredients, including a 
2012
online
video, 'Tails From the Revolution,' in which a talking dog wearing a beret 
sits
in
front of an American flag.
The new goal of the bowl is that it should runneth over with real, wholesome
food,'
says the dog, adding that it should be 'locally sourced. The video is by
Carmichael
Lynch Spong, a public relations firm in Minneapolis.
Merrick also held a mock protest demanding 'better food for the 99 percent' 
in
Union
Square Park in Manhattan in October, calling it a 'Doggupy movement,' a
reference
to Oc'cup'y Wall Street protests.
Even after the 2007 recalls, dog and cat food imports from China have grown
every
year since, from 58.8 million pounds in 2008 to 85.8 million pounds in 2011, 
an
increase
of 46 percent, according to the Food and Drug Administration.
An article in the current issue of The Bark about pet food safety emphasizes
that
ingredients from the United States are far from immune, noting numerous 
recalls
in
2012 of domestically sourced dog treats based on evidence of salmonella
contamination.
In supermarkets, mass-market department stores and club stores, Freshpet 
sold
$48.1
million in dog food and $3.5 million in cat food in the 52 weeks ending 
April
21,
an increase of more than 44 percent over the previous year, according to 
data
from
SymphonyIRI Group, a market research firm whose data does not include pet
stores.
Pet stores account for as much as 25 percent of Freshpet revenue, according 
to
the
brand.
Scott Morris, the president and a founder of Freshpet, which is based in
Secaucus,
N.J., said that although the company used no ingredients from China, it did
occasionally
buy carrots from Canada.
The brand has had to convince retailers not just to let it install branded
refrigerators
in the pet aisles, which tend to be far from electrical outlets in the 
center of
stores, but also to accept deliveries via meat distribution systems, meaning
'either
the meat or dairy guy has to put it in the pet aisle,' said Mr. Morris.
What has convinced supermarkets, along with earning higher margins than on
lower-priced
food, is that Freshpet is sold in smaller quantities and that most products 
must
be used within seven days of opening. That means it can more often be the 
reason
for the trip to the supermarket, and shoppers buying other items.
You buy 40 pounds of kibble and you don't come back for a month or two,' Mr.
Morris
said of large packages of dry food. But we're like milk and eggs.
With so many over-the-top pet products and services like doggy day spas 
today,
television
advertising helps promote Freshpet as a mainstream product rather than a
laughable
luxury.
TV is the main way to show that Freshpet is here to stay,' said Mr. Morris, 
'and
not some weird thing the neighbor down the street who's a dog kook is 
buying.
PHOTOS:
A new campaign from Freshpet includes a television commercial where dogs 
wear
placards
and posters that feature figures from American history, like Lincoln, with 
their
pets..