IAMS Dog Food Commercial FAIL

Apparently the folks at IAMS know nothing about dogs. 

Nothing.

Here we have an English Bulldog being paraded as a paragon of health, but the dog has such trouble breathing that it's mouth is always open, and it's tongue is always hanging out.

The dog is seen to "lust" after a Chinese Crested, another mutant dog with serious and obvious health disorders, such as lack of hair and incomplete dentition.

Of all the breeds in all the world these are the two this company selected to represent health?

The core problem here is that IAMS is owned by Proctor and Gamble.

No doubt the corporate people from P&G swish in and out, moving from one product to another.

And why not?  Dog food is not all that different from toothpaste -- you pick one of four or five standard formulas, wrap it in a box, slap a price on it, and hawk it through an advertising campaign designed to convince people that your version is marginally better than a competitor.

At some point, IAMS brand managers simply started to phone it in.

The dog food is now made in a contract factory which few people in power ever visit, the packaging is designed by a contract designer, and the ads are produced by a contract ad firm.

Today it appears no one, anywhere in the IAMS chain, knows or cares about the product or what it's being used for.

Dogs? IAMS is not really in the dog business, is it? They're not in the food business either. At best they are in the "brand" business, which means they are in the business of taking nearly identical products and trying to convince the general public that their version is slightly better than another version one shelf up or down.

So let me help: IAMS has produced a crap commercial about canine health featuring mutant dogs with serious health problems as paragons of good breeding.

Since advertising is their core business and they screwed this up, what does that say about their dog food? 

Is the take away message for this product supposed to be "the product makes those who consume it sick, but the packaging is amusing and that's all that really matters"?

Something to think about. . .

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