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Purina Bright Minds, Eukanuba Longer Lives

A close look at two new marketing campaigns of pet food.

A close look at two new marketing campaigns of pet food.

Below is a video of a new television commercial campaign of Purina’s Bright Minds pet food…

On the Purina ProPlan website promoting the Bright Minds pet food there is a great deal of promotional material, but nothing explaining Purina’s science behind the claims. A press release announcing the Bright Minds line of pet foods states: “Studies have found that 28 percent of cats aged 11-14 years old show signs of cognitive decline, including memory loss and reduced social interaction, and this level increases to 50 percent when cats are older than 15 years. Among dogs, 28 percent of those aged 11-12 years old and 68 percent of those aged 15-16 years old have one or more signs of cognitive issues.”

So where are the studies Purina mentions? After a lengthy online search I did find some information a Purina veterinarian website in the EU published which stated:

“The dogs in the treatment group were maintained on a diet containing a concentration of 5.5% MCT. After an initial period on the test diets (with or without MCT), all the dogs underwent a number of cognitive test protocols, which assessed landmark discrimination learning ability, egocentric visuospatial function and attention. The groups were maintained on the diets for 8 months.”

MCT stands for Medium Chain Triglycerides which are fats naturally found in coconut and palm kernel oil. In Purina’s study, the dogs were fed a diet that consisted of 5.5% MCT. Purina was questioned what percentage of MCT’s are included in their Bright Minds line of pet foods. I was told “The specific amount is proprietary information” – they would not disclose if the amount of MCT’s in the Bright Minds Pet Foods are at the same level as the research animals were fed.

End result: A consumer would have to search a great deal to find and read just a small amount of the research that Purina is basing this marketing campaign on. And in the end, the consumer would be told it was proprietary information if the pet food actually contains the same amount of MCT’s as in the study.

Below is a new commercial from Eukanuba also promoting long life in dogs…

The Eukanuba press release states:

“The EUKANUBA™ brand is launching a new marketing campaign to showcase the brand’s dedication to providing the most astounding life for dogs. The fully integrated campaign, which launches today, includes new television and print advertising, a redesigned website and updated product packaging.

The campaign, as well as the brand’s dedication to healthier, longer lives for dogs, is fueled by the EUKANUBA™ brand’s Long Life Study which was conducted over a 10-year span with dozens of Labrador Retrievers. Ninety percent of the dogs in the study lived beyond 12 years, the typical lifespan of a Labrador Retriever. Even more astonishing is that 28 percent of participating dogs lived exceptionally long lives, meaning at least 30 percent longer than their typical lifespan. This includes five of the dogs highlighted in the new advertising – Utah (at age 17), Iowa (at age 17), Georgia (at age 17), Bunny (at age 16) and Clown (at age 16).

The Long Life Study was established to better understand how to help dogs lead healthier, longer lives. Dogs in the 10-year study were given proper care and the EUKANUBA™ brand’s precise formulation of scientifically proven ingredients and were observed living beyond their typical lifespan.”

On the Eukanuba website, there this brief explanation of ‘The Long Life Study’: “10 years ago we began studying the impact of a single ingredient to help dogs live longer, healthier lives. Instead, what we observed was astonishing. Many dogs in our study that were fed Eukanuba and given proper care led exceptionally long lives.”

The video on the website we assume to provide more information about the Long Life Study is marked “private” and cannot be seen.

EukanubaStudy

There is no information on the study itself other than the above. No information on what that “single ingredient” was that Eukanuba began to study ten years ago.

End result: Consumers are left to completely trust Eukanuba to the results of Long Life Study.

If there is sound evidence to base a pet food long life claim on, that is wonderful for pet food consumers with aging pets. However if the long life claim of a pet food is basically marketing with little science to back it up, I find that low – real low. Because both of these pet foods did not make public the science to back up their long life claims – we don’t know with any certainty if the foods are beneficial or provide little benefit to aging pets.

 

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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21 Comments

21 Comments

  1. Christine

    July 2, 2015 at 10:07 am

    All I can say is shameful but so typical of the marketing tactics of the pet food industry. What is worse is people falling for that line of deceit. All I know is feeding a species appropriate raw diet does what it should and I have a 17 y. o. Westie to prove it.

    • Sage

      July 2, 2015 at 2:19 pm

      Christine
      Our WESTIE Rugby lived to almost 18 years (1 month shy of) on a safe and healthy home prepared diet – and as you mention, it works!
      Her meats were lightly cooked at that time (she was born in 1981) following the recipes in the original Natural Health book by Holistic Veterinarian Dr. Richard Pitcairn http://www.drpitcairn.com/dr-pitcairns-complete-guide/

      Dr. Pitcairn’s books have been updated over the years and NOW he too highly recommends feeding RAW and the recipes in his books have been reformulated to reflect that. A component of my CATS’ diet is RAW chicken or turkey based on formulas by Natascha of TC Feline http://tcfeline.com/2012/04/27/original-raw-cat-food-recipe/ and Veterinarian Lisa Pierson
      http://www.catinfo.org/?link=makingcatfood#The_Recipe. All our Kitties are thriving as is our terrier who also eats raw as well.

  2. Jane Eagle

    July 2, 2015 at 10:10 am

    I cannot believe that these criminals are not in jail for false advertising. What a load of BS…or should I say DS?
    I just lost a husky at 15 years (expected lifespan for a husky: 12 years). She was used as a caged breeder and fed crap for her first 10 years; so anecdotal “studies” are worthless. (Although I prefer them to actual testing on real dogs to their detriment). I also have a malamute (expected lifespan:10.5 years) who is 15, also kept in a cage and fed crap for 10 years. He will play until YOU are worn out.
    Dogs are my family and my religion; I tell everyone who will listen that if it’s not safe for you to eat, it’s not safe for your dogs.
    Thanks, Susan, for all you do.

    • Jo

      July 2, 2015 at 11:04 pm

      Jane,
      What do you feed your dogs?

    • Ann*

      July 3, 2015 at 9:48 am

      My dear father in law just died at 103 yrs old and he never exercised, wouldn’t eat vegetables, and to the best of my knowledge never ate Eukanuba either. His son died in his 60’s. So much of longevity is counter to all the studies, both in animals and people, and continually demonstrates that it has much more to do with individual genes than all of the scientific studies. Many of the world’s oldest humans drink alcohol and/or smoke and yet live long and active lives to the amazement of others.
      We all want to give our pets the healthiest longest lives possible and this type of marketing is just a play on peoples’ emotions and works quite well, unfortunately.

    • mike

      April 10, 2016 at 9:14 pm

      One item for clarity. But first I believe you are feeding your dogs very well. If I could cook for my dog I would do it, but he won’t eat it. My old Bouvier who died at 15 1/2 due to injury, actually got younger when I started cooking for him (chicken, brown rice, green beens, broccoli and oils high in omega 3s.
      The one thing I would like to point out is the average ages you quote are just that overall averages and have little to do with how long “your” dog lives. Those averages include deaths due to cancer (70% for Golden retrievers, worse for Bernese Mtn Dogs), dogs put down due to other congenital diseases like wobblers, dysplasia, etc. They don’t reflect how long a breed would live assuming they were generally healthy and so to compare how long your dogs live to those averages is erroneous. I’m not saying your dogs don’t live healthier and longer due to your great feeding regime, it’s just that they probably are living 2 or 3 yrs longer rather than 5.

  3. Jo

    July 2, 2015 at 10:12 am

    I wouldn’t trust the makers of Eukanuba to mow my lawn, much less feed my beloved animals.

    As for Purina and MCTs in their food, Dr. Jean Hofve just published *another* article regarding the reasons why she feels coconut oil is NOT healthy for consumption by cats!

    http://www.littlebigcat.com/nutrition/coconut-oil-and-cats/

    And from her Summer 2014 newsletter:
    “Coconut oil is not for cats: Coconut oil is the latest nutrition crazy for humans, and already at least one manufacturer is adding coconut oil to its cat foods. But cats aren’t people, and what’s good for us is often not good for them. Coconut oil is more than 90% saturated fat–far more than any animal fat–and is devoid of the long-chain essential fatty acids that cats need, such as arachadonic acid and Omega-3s EPA and DHA. It’s high in medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs), which can cause gas, bloating, and diarrhea. Too much of it is unpalatable; most cats won’t touch it. MCTs have also been linked to feline hepatic lipidosis (a life-threatening liver disease). So don’t be fooled by this fad…feed your cat what she is designed to eat: animal-based protein and fat in a high-moisture food.”

    Oh, and have you seen the commercial Purina is now running on Beneful, featuring plant employees talking about how they feed the food to their own dogs? Wow.

    • Laura

      July 2, 2015 at 12:32 pm

      I didn’t watch the whole thing because I was just so disgusted by it, but I remember one guy talking about Purina raising the bar, saying something like,”There’s pet food, and then there’s Purina.” UGH.

      • Regina

        July 2, 2015 at 2:09 pm

        Maybe he meant “lowering” the bar???

    • Cheryl Mallon-Bond

      July 2, 2015 at 6:19 pm

      I am seriously concerned hearing this about coconut oil, as I had believed it to be fine for cats, & have been leaving some out for.my kitty crew to lap up, to help them with hairballs & other health promoting benefits. I am lookingni to this IMMEDIATLEY!!!!

  4. Gitta

    July 2, 2015 at 10:50 am

    A tiny bit more info
    http://adage.com/article/news/eukanuba-campaign-dogs-live-longer/298642/

    As to the MCT: hard to imagine it is high quality oil.

  5. John

    July 2, 2015 at 11:57 am

    the problem is how the majority doesn’t stop to think that it is possible that pet food companies can make major lies like this…

    • John

      July 2, 2015 at 12:49 pm

      its definitely not a common consensus to add to that.

  6. sherry

    July 2, 2015 at 12:01 pm

    My dog was fed purina crap before i rescued her. She was a mess. Leaky gut syndrome, allergic to almost everything, thyroid problem, low b-12. I make her own food. Organic grass fed beef with vegetables. She is the best dog i ever had and i hope she lives a long time. I dont trust any dog food on the market. It really makes me sick!

  7. Regina

    July 2, 2015 at 12:03 pm

    One thing I don’t understand, if they claim that a certain ingredient in one small group of their many different product lines is so great, why not make all of their products great???

    Of course your regular readers will understand that this was a rhetorical question.

    Why don’t customers realize that if purina or eukanuba are claiming that this particular line of their many different products is so wonderful, why don’t customers then think that the rest of their stuff isn’t as good and stop buying it????

    And why do people insist on still buying beneful????? How can anything that inexpensive be any good? You get what you pay for!
    I don’t understand why people don’t read ingredient labels.

    I hate when I see someone who drives a high-end car think that cheap food is the only way to go for their oets. I guess they just don’t care for their pets as much as Susan’s followers, sigh.

  8. Sage

    July 2, 2015 at 2:50 pm

    Susan has previously written about the fact that Pet Food Manufacturers cannot make “HEALTH” claims except for their PRESCRIPTION Product Lines sold through Veterinarians (and we all know how bad those are). So I’m wondering how Purina / Eukanuba can get away with the “HEALTH” claims they are making for this Bright Minds pet food sold without a prescription?

    • Susan Thixton

      July 2, 2015 at 2:54 pm

      I felt that way too Sage – that these pet food marketing campaigns were bordering on health claims. Especially the Purina products. I will report this to FDA – doubt they will do anything, but at least it will be reported.

  9. Steve J

    July 2, 2015 at 6:57 pm

    Typical of this quality of feed, the Purina ingredients are: Chicken, Brewer’s rice, Poultry by-product meal, Whole grain corn, Corn gluten meal, Whole grain wheat, Corn germ meal, Barley, Medium-chain triglyceride vegetable oil, Fish meal, Dried egg product, Animal digest, Fish oil, Wheat bran, Salt, and added synthetic minerals.

    Probably feed-lot chicken, and we all know how appropriate the by-products and corn & wheat ingredients are. No added belly bacteria either, but like some of the vets around here, they probably don’t believe that a balance of good & bad bacteria in the gut is important.

    Can you say “same ol’ D.S. with some MCT tossed in?”

  10. Lori S.

    July 6, 2015 at 3:19 pm

    Thank you for this. I was struck by the advertising for Purina Bright Minds as having “botanical oils,” suggesting some rare and wonderful essential oil blend that only they have discovered and extensively studied. It is just coconut and/or palm oil, something one could add oneself to the diet, and probably in a safer form (i.e., less processed and adulterated). Purina is just trading on the healthful image (deserved or not) of the phrase “botanical oils,” trying to appeal both to the alternative medicine crowd and the pro-science crowd, with little actual science to back up their claims. Pathetic.

  11. Anna

    November 2, 2016 at 8:42 pm

    I had 2 dogs over the last 3 – 4 months die from kidney /liver failure while eating Bright Minds. This stuff should be taken off of the market.

  12. Lisa

    January 12, 2017 at 4:13 pm

    Realistically if you want to find the actual scientific studies you just need to go to Pubmeb and look up Canine Medium chain triglyceride. Or Ketogenic diets. Brings up all the published studies on MCT oil, essentially what the additive in bright minds is. Study sponsors are listed in each individual article. Several included Nestle Purina.

    Dietary supplementation with medium-chain TAG has long-lasting cognition-enhancing effects in aged dogs
    https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/british-journal-of-nutrition/article/div-classtitledietary-supplementation-with-medium-chain-tag-has-long-lasting-cognition-enhancing-effects-in-aged-dogsdiv/0E84D6219DA529EF107DF1E6636598BC

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