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Japanese Twitter barks with laughter over dogfood ad’s bizarre choice of photo

Katy Kelly Jan 28, 2021
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They should have used a shot from earlier in the dog feeding process.

Pet food commercials are strange in that rather than appealing to their target audience, they instead are forced to appeal to the human owner. Pets are at the mercy of their human housemate’s wallet, and so pet food ads are often shot with the double focus of appealing to human appetites, showing luscious chunks of meat and glistening gravy, as well as showcasing the pets in question at their absolute cutest. Remember how much you love your puppy? Doesn’t your puppy deserve delicious food?

Sometimes, though, the advertisers completely miss the target and manage to fail to appeal to the pet owner, not only with unappetizing images but by reminding them of one of the biggest downsides of owning a pet. Such was the case with an online advertisement found by Twitter user @Yama_NJ_:

▼ “That’s not a photo you should use to advertise dog food.”

https://twitter.com/Yama_NJ_/status/1353205327169163264

The ad depicts a kind of “explosively popular locally-sourced dog food” sold by Onedogs and offers a half-price discount and free shipping for anyone who clicks on the ad. The ad is a little lacking, in terms of graphic design– simple white text adorns the image of the dog, stating “locally-sourced”, “no additives” and “dog food.” The real problem, though, is what @Yama_NJ_ points out: this particular dog photo isn’t a great choice for a pet food ad.

Most of the time, pet food commercials focus on the dog or cat happily scarfing down their meal. This image, though, seems to feature a dog that already ate its meal some time ago and is preparing to eject whatever is left of it from its body.

One commenter posted a dog emoji to make it seem as though they were roleplaying the dog in question: “Locally-sourced, additive-free…but at the end of the day, it all ends up the same way!” Another added that “Honestly, it’s a small mercy that the product in question isn’t visible in this photo,” and yet another said, “I think he’s summoning the last vestiges of the product right now…”

But one commenter was clearly tired of beating around the bush and said what we were all thinking:

▼ “P o o p”

うんち pic.twitter.com/1Yi5jwg9QM

— 激痛キッズサンプル (@sksz2525) January 25, 2021

For what it’s worth, investigating Onedogs’ dog food does make it clear that their product is intended to encourage regular bowel movements. However, this little tidbit is usually tucked after the photos of happy, gamboling puppies, and not front and center as it is in the cited advertisement.

The tweet in question has 79,000 retweets at the time of writing, so perhaps this unusual advertising gambit paid off after all. After all, who doesn’t want their precious pooch to be happy, well-fed, and with clean bowel movements?

Source: Twitter/@Yama_NJ_ via Hachima Kikou, Onedogs
Top image: Pakutaso
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