Pet owners have been advertised to since the beginning of commercial pet food. Ingredients have changed, brands have come and gone, but the marketing tricks continue.
One marketing trick we thankfully don’t see today…
In the 1920’s Pooch Dog Food offered pet owners 6 metal coasters/ashtrays for sending in 24 can labels.
Chuck Wagon dog food – a Purina product – included “Meat-like” chunks along with kibble. For “dogs who don’t believe a dry dog food can taste good”, Purina told pet owners in this ad “First they take seasoned, red kibbles that actually turn into soft, meat like chunks when water is added. Then, they add flavor-packed bits that stay crunchy in water. And you know how dogs love crunch. (That’s one reason they love bones so much.)”
Chuck Wagon dog food must have cost more than other dog foods of the time, this Purina ad also told pet owners “you might find it costs a bit more per serving than other dry dog foods. A better product always does.”
Friskies – now a cat food – used to be a dog food that sourced “inspected and certified horse meat”. Friskies claimed “up to twice as much nourishment per can as low-quality dog foods” in their ad.
This Gravy Train ad told pet owners in one minute this dry dog food adds gravy to the food claiming it “looks like beef stew!”
This Hill’s dog food label evidences that this brand (now Hill’s Science Diet) used to include inspected and passed (horse) meat. Ingredients in this dog food were “horse meat, horse meat by-products, green bone, wheat, corn, barley, salt and cod liver oil.”
This Ideal dog food advertisement provided pet owners with some interesting information. Such as dogs fed Ideal dog food ignore fresh meat, because dogs are color blind – they don’t see red meat as anything different than kibble.
And with the above Ideal dog food, this ad even provides training on how to get your dog to swallow the food…
Purina offered pet owners the checker board dog bowl shown on “top TV shows as ‘Leave It To Beaver’ and ‘Cheyenne’.”
This Puss ‘n Boots cat food ad provided pet owners with a bit of science regarding amino acids in their foods claiming they used fish fillets instead of fish by-products. They also offered pet owners an 8 X 10 print of the Siamese cats for $0.25.
For three Rival dog food labels, a pet owner would be sent a 40 page book with pictures and descriptions of every dog breed, health hints and dog tricks.
This Top Choice dog food ad directly compared it to hamburger, asking pet owners to pick which one is burger and which is Top Choice.
Susan Thixton
Pet Food Safety Advocate
Author Buyer Beware, Co-Author Dinner PAWsible
TruthaboutPetFood.com
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Sara H
March 18, 2025 at 2:48 pm
If I remember correctly, Friskies dog food was renamed Ken-L-Ration? Lord, I’m old! I do remember many of these brands. At the animal shelter, where I volunteered back in the Dark Ages, we’d sometimes feed Alpo and just gag – huge organ tubes! Horse meat was standard.
Bonnie Morris
March 18, 2025 at 2:58 pm
Well done my friend. Funny I was for some reason thinking about Gravy Train dog food yesterday and remembering how bad the gas was with the dogs that ate it. Great article. We love you at my house. Harley,Ditto and Bella Bee. Me, too.
Bernie Winegrad
March 18, 2025 at 3:10 pm
Geez… I’m old enough to remember these adds. I’m glad I didn’t have any pets to poison. Now? With both dog and cat kids, I wonder how much has really changed.
Susan
March 18, 2025 at 3:15 pm
I’m vintage too, and I remember most of these foods.