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$40 Million Advertising

Rachael Ray’s pet food line Nutrish is spending $40 million dollars to advertise. Is it honest advertising or is it misleading consumers?

93Sammy2Rachael Ray’s pet food line Nutrish is spending $40 million dollars to advertise. Is it honest advertising or is it misleading consumers?

Pet food advertising is a personal pet peeve (PPP). Misleading unknowing consumers is wrong. Misleading pet food advertising could and should be prevented as regulations consider pet food websites and advertising an extension of the label. But…regulatory authorities don’t bother with enforcement of websites and advertising.

Below is an example of a pet food advertising campaign. You decide if this is misleading or not.

MediaPost.com published a press release type article titled “Rachael Ray’s Nutrish Pet Food Lanuches $40 Million Campaign”. The article shared that Nutrish pet food passed “$280 million in retail sales for the most recent 52 week period” thanks to last years advertising campaign (which led to “$100 million in sales growth”). The new advertising “primary target/audience is women ages 35-54 with a household of $75,000 and higher” and also targets “a label reader, and therefore buys natural.”

The new product line that will be highly advertised this year is Nutrish DISH. Below is the label of the Nutrish DISH Chicken and Brown Rice Recipe Dog Food.

NutrishChicken

The pet food clearly displays grilled chicken on the label (note the grill marks). On the Nutrish website it states “slow-roasted chicken pieces that you can actually see”.

But, with a phone call to Nutrish I learned that the chicken is not grilled. “It is cooked first, then dehydrated.” This pet food is doing the same thing so many others are doing, displaying grilled meat on the label when none of the ingredients are grilled. Below is an image of the actual ‘real chicken pieces’ in the dog food…

Nutrish5

 

Question: Does the label image of chicken look anything like the ‘slow roasted chicken pieces’ in the bag? (Which are not slow roasted they are dehydrated.)

Nutrish8

Why do so many pet food companies mislead consumers into believing grilled meat (implying human food quality) in in the pet food? The answer: because misleading consumers into believing the pet food is just like the food they eat sells a lot of pet food. And because they can get away with it – regulatory authorities don’t stop them. Regulatory authorities could and should stop misleading advertising. If the label tells consumers there is grilled chicken in the pet food, it should be grilled. There is no excuse.

By the way, Rachael Ray’s Nutrish Pet Food is a feed grade pet food. It is not a human grade pet food (as the grilled meat and roasted vegetable ingredients on the label imply).

 

Wishing you and your pet(s) the best,

Susan Thixton
Pet Food Safety Advocate
Author Buyer Beware, Co-Author Dinner PAWsible
TruthaboutPetFood.com
Association for Truth in Pet Food

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35 Comments

35 Comments

  1. Mary Marseglia

    May 9, 2016 at 11:48 am

    Rachael Ray’s food is just another horribly made commercial dry kibble made. She’s in it for the money only. Shame on you Rachael Ray! And look at all the money spent on Advertising just for this ONE lousy Commercial Dry Kibble dog food! I wish I had the money to do my own advertising to get people to realize & understand that our pets to live a “vital & healthy” life is to feed complete raw diet made primarily from herbivore/ungulate animals(yes, people can feed poultry, pork but should not be the primary diet….it isn’t even the primary diet of their true wild ancestor, the gray wolf & African Wild cat—none of the wild cats actually 🙂 )

    • Pamela Mueller

      May 9, 2016 at 12:27 pm

      I don’t approve of misleading pictures in the advertising, but I think it’s wonderful that Rachael Ray donates her proceeds from selling the food to animal rescue and shelters.

  2. Sherrie Ashenbremer

    May 9, 2016 at 11:58 am

    It does look tasty on the package, but I know you can’t go by the pictures on the package, it is crappy food. It’s a shame that many people will buy this food for their pets thinking they are getting a good quality healthy diet. Why doesn’t our government stop this?

  3. Kelly

    May 9, 2016 at 1:12 pm

    I can see both sides. This is a grocery store food and I would say this is one of the better ones. So I’m happy that people will feed this instead of the other options out there. Rachel Ray does a lot of great work with the rescue community and I appreciate that. It’s up to the people to do their own research and figure out what’s best for their animal. Not everyone is going to feed raw, home cooked or a Champion type kibble so it’s not helping to be so hard on some of these companies. Some people are doing the best they can and if feeding Rachel Ray is the best they can do then at least they are feeding their animal and not starving it. I wish more people cared about their own health as much as they do about their pets!

    • Jude

      May 9, 2016 at 1:48 pm

      I can see both sides, too. But selling a cheap dog food and promoting it with lies on her website and on the package is dishonest. Donating the proceeds from the sales to shelters and dog rescues appears to be generous, but is it really, when the money is earned dishonestly and consumers are deceived into believing that they are feeding a wonderful food to their beloved pets?

      Susan, what can I personally do about this? To do nothing is to change nothing.

      • Susan Thixton

        May 9, 2016 at 1:58 pm

        You can try reporting the pet food label to FTC – Barbara provided that link in her comment. And/or you can report the label to your State Department of Agriculture. You can find who to contact here: http://www.aafco.org/Regulatory You could also report lack of enforcement of law to your state representatives.

      • Cheryl Mallon-Bond

        May 9, 2016 at 2:24 pm

        Hey Jude, You had asked Susan what you can do about Rachel Ray’s misleading dog food advertisement. Here are a few ideas. You can start a petition on Care2. You can also.call corporate. You probably would be wise to contact Rachel Ray herself, because very sadly, she probably doesn’t even know about this. She probably has business partners who deal with that part of her business. I highly doubt Rachel herself would know this information & be OK with it. She does not seem like a dishonest person. Many times when people has multifaceted business ventures, they are hiring people to be heads of some of their businesses, as they cannot personally oversee everything.

        • Peter

          May 10, 2016 at 7:24 am

          Rachel Ray, as any prudent celebrity, would be protective of her reputation in the marketplace. It’s fair to assume that she is aware of and holds approval over the packaging which even bears her image. No excuses.

    • Sherrie Ashenbremer

      May 9, 2016 at 4:23 pm

      Very good points

  4. woofielover

    May 9, 2016 at 1:23 pm

    Pet peeve for me too. Remember the “True Blue” guarantee? Guaranteed to be a lie. I’ve always been irtitated by people who know NOTHING about pet food but think they know how to make it or even just lend there celebrity name to it. The ingredients in her prior line had beef in the chicken sku and chicken in the beef stew. Essentially the same crap in each bag! As for donating her proceeds, who cares? Does the end justify the means? That’s like a drug pusher donating to a high school. Same difference.

    • Pamela Mueller

      May 9, 2016 at 7:14 pm

      Some people cannot afford premium food and it’s better than most grocery store brands. And yes it does matter that she donates the proceeds. It’s a great deal of money for shelters and rescues that are in dire need of funding.

      • Steve J

        May 10, 2016 at 11:24 am

        RR Nutrish might be cheaper per pound, but check out how much they recommend feeding per day. Higher quality products will usually be more nutrient dense with less filler, requiring less to be fed per day.
        In this case, the RR Nutrish-Dish chart recommends 4 1/4 cups for a 75 lb dog, when for example, Nature’s Logic calls for 2 1/2 cups for same dog.
        Where’s the savings?

  5. barbara m.

    May 9, 2016 at 1:36 pm

    What many consumers don’t know is that the “meat” most likely is a combination of diseased parts (“inedible”) that were cut off the of the animals when being separated from the “edible” parts for human grade food. If folks think their pet food has prime cuts, they will be disappointed to learn that it contains Abrasions and pus (9 CFR 311.14), Tuberculosis (9 CFR 311.2), Mad cow disease, B.S.E. (9 CFR 310.22), cancerous growths, fecal matter, liver flukes, tapeworms, and the list goes on and on.
    Both the photo of grilled meat and the claim that it is ‘slow roasted’ are false and misleading. It is illegal but not enforced. If people want to report false advertising, they can file a report at the FTC. Federal Trade Commission. https://www.ftc.gov/faq/consumer-protection/submit-consumer-complaint-ftc

  6. john ford

    May 9, 2016 at 1:45 pm

    ainsworth pet food also makes tractor supply grain free dog food. same ingredients

  7. Holly

    May 9, 2016 at 2:47 pm

    If you go on the Nutrish FB page, there’s a video of RR saying that the chicken is slow roasted. She knows it isn’t. She should know better

    • Brenda

      May 10, 2016 at 10:31 am

      You would have to assume that a nationally known chef knows the difference between roasted chicken and dehydrated feed grade “with a delicious real meat texture and smoke (flavoring).

      Maybe the best we can do is our own comparisons (ingredients) and forget the package advertisement. Let them waste their $40 million. It should be given to farm animal and pet charities.

    • Sherrie Ashenbremer

      May 16, 2016 at 9:39 am

      It is sad that she would lie like that. Saying the food is slow roasted and healthy, but she knows it isn’t. That is dishonest and she is a liar.

  8. Suzanne

    May 9, 2016 at 2:52 pm

    That’s how I feel about Grandma Lucy’s and this page: https://www.grandmalucys.com/process/

    Specifically this line: “Freeze-drying, as compared to other drying processes such as dehydrating or air drying, is used at Grandma Lucy’s because it is better at retaining the characteristics of the raw food.” What they don’t tell you any where on that page is that they cook the meat at 200 degrees F for 10-15 minutes before they freeze dry it, which isn’t RAW. It annoys me to end that they have this on the website but if you call them out on it they will say (and are technically correct) that they don’t have any where on the package that it is RAW.

    • Sherrie Ashenbremer

      May 9, 2016 at 4:27 pm

      I feed one of my dogs Stella & Chewy’s Freeze Dried Rabbit. He has allergy and skin problems and this is what the vet recommended for him? I thought that was a very very good dog food? Am I wrong, is there another dog food that would be better? I also heard Zignature was great for dogs with allergies. I haven’t tried that one yet.

      • Hope Valenti

        May 9, 2016 at 9:32 pm

        Zignature is basically 4 ingredients and good for allergies. Comes in turkey-lamb-trout-duck flavors. Fromm also makes a gf duck rabbit called ducken hasenpfeffer. It is very popular. Good luck.

      • Jeri

        May 10, 2016 at 6:06 pm

        Rabbit is a good protein source and seems to be a good choice for dogs with gastro or other issues.Is there a particular reason you want freeze dried over plain raw? If not, I would recommend any of the raw companies or sourcing your own…. Primal, Darwin’s, Steve’s, Answers, etc… All good companies. As far as I know, most companies which do freeze dried are not cooking the meat first, so I think you’re good with Stella and Chewy’s. We feed freeze dried for treats, as well as dehydrated, but prefer regular raw for meals — which we prep most of the time ourselves. HTH.

        • Sherrie Ashenbremer

          May 16, 2016 at 9:48 am

          Jeri, I switched to Vital Essentials frozen rabbit patties. Have you heard of that one? When I was using Stella & Chewy’s—it didn’t help my dog, he was still itchy, his skin was red, he has lost a lot of hair on his belly, front and back legs, his skin was very hot and he had a very strong almost urine like odor, my heart was so sad for him. I knew he couldn’t have been comfortable. He has been on Apaquel, steroids, allergy shots twice a week, you name it and my Bailey has been there. He has been fed, Just Food for Dogs venison & quinoa, Just Food for Dogs kangaroo & squash, Honest Kitchen Zeal (which is fish), Stella & Chewy’s Rabbit, Answer’s Goat Milk has been mixed into his food. Finally this Vital Essentials has helped. He is still on Apaquel, but he is better.

          • Jeri

            May 16, 2016 at 3:32 pm

            Yes, I have used both Steve’s Raw Food (created by Steve Brown), and Vital Essentials. Liked both.There have been some recalls for the VE – beef and chicken — for possible pathogen contamination, but I have had no issues with what I bought.

        • Sherrie Ashenbremer

          May 16, 2016 at 9:48 am

          Never heard of Steve’s—is that a raw company

  9. Lisa

    May 9, 2016 at 3:26 pm

    I can speak from experience not about RR dog food, but about her brand of dry cat food. I fed it to my cat (who will eat nothing but dry food) and within 3 weeks of eating the food, he started losing his hair! Patches of random hair just started falling out. He wasn’t sick in any capacity (had him checked out at the vet’s), but because I had switched his regular food to RR’s, I stopped it soon after we noticed his hair coming out. Changed his food back to what he was eating before and lo and behold, no more hair loss. It’s a crime that any pet food is anything less than 100% what it claims to be. We have to be vigilant to not be swayed by appetizing, colorful pictures on the boxes or bags. It’s what’s written in the ingredients that matters.

  10. Paula

    May 9, 2016 at 5:09 pm

    If its sold in a grocery store that is the number one sign not to buy it.

  11. Batzion

    May 9, 2016 at 5:41 pm

    Rachel Ray’s famous EVOO (extra virgin olive oil) is adulterated with a cheap oil filler: http://www.organicauthority.com/foodie-buzz/whats-in-your-olive-oil.html, so why should her pet food be any different?

  12. Debi Cohen

    May 9, 2016 at 6:40 pm

    More crappy food, just like Halo, by Ellen, when you see a food like Nutrish in Walmart………………..RUN, money, money and more money, how much money is enough????????????

  13. Hope Valenti

    May 9, 2016 at 9:36 pm

    I agree. If sold in grocery store it is probably not the best. Why spend money on slaughterhouse waste when you can purchase quality products like Fromm, Orijen, just to name a few. Find a local independent retailer and buy your food from a smaller store. I know because I own one.

  14. Kathryn S

    May 10, 2016 at 5:56 am

    most buyers also look at the ‘protein’ content – and mistakenly assume that the source of that protein is MEAT, never considering that the majority of the protein actually may be coming from secondary ingredients. I do think that most people realize that that the pretty picture do not actually represent what’s is in the bag, but they may not realize the source of those ingredients –

  15. Pat P.

    May 10, 2016 at 1:37 pm

    There is NO excuse for ANY celebrity to not know what’s in their pet food. I don’t care how much she donates to charities, if the food is harmful to pets, which feed-grade is. Deluding the public into thinking the food is human-grade, slow-roasted and healthy, is not acceptable. We have to stop excusing people in the entertainment business for being irresponsible and worse! She should thoroughly investigate a product that she puts her name on! It’s not the same as putting your name on a building.

    I applaud her for giving to animal charities, like Paul Newman. Yet, it was recently discovered that many of his claimed “organic” pet foods did not meet the criteria for that label and were not certified. Deceptive advertising: They only had a few organic ingredients in them, meaning other listings on his label were not. I believe the FDA required his company to recall and relabel all cans that were not certified “organic (meaning ALL ingredients must be organic). So he, now, has 2 lines of pet foods, one certified “organic”, the other containing something organic it. Both of these celebrities are/were deceiving the public. Inexcusable!

    The ASPCA and other organizations that receive funds from Rachel Ray give her free advertising, so, at least, some of that 40 million dollars could be allotted in more beneficial ways.

    • Batzion

      May 10, 2016 at 1:51 pm

      Pat P., I agree with you 100%. Check out this chart, especially “packaged foods” at the bottom. It gives the correct labeling protocol for “organic” food:

  16. Batzion

    May 10, 2016 at 1:52 pm

  17. Anthony Hepton

    May 10, 2016 at 8:52 pm

    For those trapped by ORGANIC, just remember it is a marketing scheme to sell products at a higher price, not safer and not more nutritious. Also these products are not pesticide free, just free of ‘synthetic’ pesticides.

  18. Lynda Garibaldi

    July 4, 2016 at 6:28 pm

    A friend told me last week that his little dog frequently threw up after eating. One episode left his dog whimpering on his belly, unable to move,. He rushed the dog to the vet clinic where they observed the little dog turning yellow and administered emergency treatment. My friend started feeding his dog Rachel Ray’s Nutrish and now the dog gobbles down the food like it’s so tasty he can’t get enough. Since eating Rachel Ray’s dog food, the dog has not had any more episodes of throwing up.

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