Can You Hear Me Now?

If you won’t buy a company’s product, maybe your dog will. Or at least that’s what Nestle Purina is hoping will happen with their latest marketing strategy.

The company just launched a “dogs only” commercial in Austria and Germany in which high-pitched sounds (that apparently only doggie ears can detect) play in the background of the dog food commercial.

"Do you hear what I hear?"

So naturally, when you’re watching television with your pup and the ad comes on, their ears will perk up and they’ll automatically know that it’s a commercial for yummy dog chow (because dogs aren’t able to see what’s on the television since they supposedly only see in vague, colorless blurs). And then they’ll open their mouths and tell you (with perfect diction) to go buy them Nestle Purina. Better yet, they will drive themselves to the nearest market and buy said dog food with their food stamps.

"Nein, sie können nicht die teureren hundefutter!"

As you can tell, I really don’t understand the point of this commercial. Dogs will like hearing the sound (I think?), but what is it supposed to motivate the owners/humans to do? Again, I don’t see the point. But it does get points for creativity.

Sadly, I do not have my Australian Shepherd here with me in my dorm room to give it a test run, but any of you with dogs at home should give it a try and report back with the results.

Side note: one has to wonder if German dogs hear differently than dogs in American homes. Will they get the same message based on the sounds? Or will American dogs wrongly misinterpret the sound to mean “Must bark more!”?

Hmm.