JustFoodForDogs Hits the Streets (And Dog Poop Piles) of New York to Promote Healthier Diets for Dogs

You can tell a lot about your dog’s diet from its poop. This week JustFoodForDogs, the human grade, whole ingredient, fresh food, independent dog food company that is available in Petco locations throughout the country will step into history, using the dog poop left on New York City streets as an outdoor advertising platform. 

As the central part of its first integrated brand campaign, created in partnership with NY agencyWalrus, JustFoodForDogs will be hitting the streets of New York, one of the brand’s largest markets, to insert tiny billboards into piles of dog poop that alert dog owners to the nutritional shortcomings of their current dog food. Curated signs left in dry poop will recommend more fiber, for example, and signs left in gigantic poops, aka “two-baggers,” will warn against food that’s hard to digest, and so on for loose, discolored and otherwise unhealthy poop. And so on. Each sign will bear JustFoodForDogs simple sentiments and branding along with an assurance that cleanup crews will arrive shortly to remove the poop as a courtesy.

Beyond the street piles, JustFoodForDogs is launching a series of traditional outdoor ads to further tout the brand. Intentionally designed and written to be simple and straightforward, like the product it’s promoting, the campaign leans into JustFoodForDogs’ mission to improve the length and quality of life of dogs through real food and nutrition that is pure and simple, backed by science, and produced through transparent practices.

Ads throughout New York City and Brooklyn will send messages on billboards, bus shelters, wallscapes and taxi tops like, “Our secret ingredient? No secret ingredients,” and “No frills. Unless you count nine years of research as frills.” A series of social posts comparing the clinically-backed, fresh food and intent of JustFoodForDogs to that of other dog foods on the market will run across Instagram and Facebook.

All aspects of the campaign bear the new tagline “Fresh Dog Food Made Right” and direct dog owners to Petco where they can purchase or learn more about JustFoodForDogs. JustFoodForDogs is available at over 1,000 Petcos nationwide, and their food is cooked fresh daily and refrigerated or frozen, including two flagship kitchens in New York City.

“This campaign is about letting dog owners know that all fresh dog foods are not the same, as Just Food For Dogs is the only one that has invested in 9 years of research to help create healthy recipes and improve dog’s lives,” said Steve Joyce, CMO of Just Food For Dogs.

“Most people don’t know that their dog’s diet is lacking, but we realized that there are signs of unhealthy dogs all over the streets of New York City every day in the form of un-collected poop. It felt like a perfect unexpected place to do a little bit of education,” said Deacon Webster CCO of Walrus.