If a pet food company invites writers to tour its facilities, when everything the journalists see is carefully planned, is that really transparency? Seems that this is a growing PR trend among corporations, and it is brilliant. McDonald’s invites mom-bloggers for sleepovers and the result is a great PR turnaround.
The Whole Dog Journal was invited to tour Proctor & Gamble’s Pet Health Nutrition Center as part of a public relations outreach campaign, and WDJ editor Nancy Kerns has written a very upbeat article about her visit to P&G, and to competitor Hill’s. Surprisingly upbeat, considering WDJ’s long history of criticizing these companies’ pet foods.
A corporation can orchestrate a successful PR campaign but one thing it can’t do is spin the ingredients panel. Here are the first ten ingredients in Hill’s Adult Advanced Fitness Original dry dog food:
Chicken, Whole Grain Corn, Whole Grain Sorghum, Whole Grain Wheat, Chicken By-Product Meal, Soybean Meal, Corn Gluten Meal, Animal Fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols and citric acid), Brewers Rice, Chicken Liver Flavor. Want fries with that?