Even as someone who has worked in the marketing field for many years, I frequently have to laugh at some of the shenanigans we pull as an industry, especially in advertising. All too often, marketing executives are falling all over themselves to portray their product in its absolute best light, almost to a fault. Look no further than a Frito Lay commercial where every bag of chips looks more neatly pressed than Private Downey’s uniform in A Few Good Men. Or this Burger King commercial where the woman’s euphoric reaction to eating the sandwich appears that she is engaging in a very different type of activity. In the ad business, this technique is called “bite and smile” but let’s face it – this fabricated portrayal is really what bites.
Casino advertisers have their own version of this, called “spin, win and grin.” Everyone is dressed nicely, everyone is having a great time raking in cold hard cash and everyone has a spectacular smile full of pearly whites. They may be 40 miles from Albuquerque but, on this night, in this commercial, they are clearly living it up baby. That’s the norm—it’s all shiny, happy people interacting with the beer/hotel/SUV/bank/wart removal cream/whatever. And, hey, if you choose that brand, you too could be one of those people.
That’s why I admire the little twist that Freshpet has done. Each spot to promote their line of refrigerated, premium dog food has an antagonist who simply doesn’t approve of the dog owner’s high standards. The dog owner then is faced with a choice—succumb to the ridicule of their fretful human friend, or ditch that loser and do what they think is right for their faithful canine compadre.
Of course, they choose the latter but instead of this choice coming across as hokey or heavy-handed, it’s done perfectly. It almost makes you the dog-loving ad viewer want to lock the door behind the thick-headed nimwit they’ve just booted if not help give that delta bravo one last swift kick in the arse on their way out.
That’s no easy thing to engender that level of investment in one :30 story, er, I mean commercial. Yet Freshpet does it well as you can see in these three examples: Gameday, My Boy Junior and Peter.
It’s a nice change of pace and I’m guessing it is convincing some dog lovers to think about their options. Good on you Freshpet.
