The ad that the Big Pet food companies are trying to ban

The environment is the hot topic on everyone’s lips at the moment, and rightly so. For far too long big companies have put profits ahead of the planet and we are all becoming increasingly aware of how unsustainable this is.

We need new approaches in a lot of industries to start fixing these issues and it tends to fall to smaller, more innovative, caring companies to develop these products and get them to market. These companies then need to promote these products. The new products and marketing are a threat to big, established companies, who have been resting on their laurels for far too long.

Instead of trying to improve their products in any meaningful way the big brands resort to their standard, bullying ways of working. The latest case is the Pooch & Mutt advert for their new cartons of wet food for dogs, which are 80% more environmentally friendly than cans - a fact backed up by studies by the packaging manufacturer TetraPak.

Pooch & Mutt has received threats to force them to remove the ad from the MPMA (Metal Packaging Manufacturers Association) presumably triggered by Big Pet Food Companies that dominate the market with canned dog food.

Guy Blaskey, founder of Pooch & Mutt said, “This is not the first time we have received threats around our marketing. Last year we had to remove a page from our website informing people about the truth behind Baker’s ingredients, such as the fact that it contains crushed insects. We did not have to remove this because it is true. We had to remove it as Nestle used a loophole in the advertising laws to get the ASA to see what we saw as an informative piece of journalism, as a piece of comparative advertising.

The latest campaign for our wet food cartons urges customers to ‘Ditch the Can. Help the Planet’, as cartons are proven to be 80% more environmentally friendly than cans. It’s disappointing to get threats from MPMA. This is probably the least controversial campaign that we have done. If I was running one of these companies and losing millions in sales year on year I’d spend more time getting my own house in order. It’s almost a compliment that they consider us such a threat”.