Budweiser's Breeder Dogs?

Earlier in the week, I put up a post about the Budweiser Super Bowl ad called "Puppy Love". 

In that post I noted that:

I have several problems with this ad.  The first is the "puppy adoptions" sign.

That's an expensive and permanent sign, and those dogs are NOT being "adopted" -- they are pure bred dogs being SOLD. Nothing wrong with that, but do not piss on my leg and tell me it's raining.

When you are selling pure breed retrievers... you are not in the ADOPTION business, but in the cash-and-carry business.

The word "adoption" here is cynical marketing malarkey designed to "dog wash" this ad from the stigma that is now attached to breeding pedigree dogs.

Shortly after posting, someone sent me a link to a rescue in Illinois that was promoting the fact that two of their rescue dogs were being used in the Budweiser commercial.  

So was I wrong that these Budweiser dogs came from a high-end pedigree dog breeder?

Hmmmm.

A quick Google search found the likely source of the two dogs in that rescue: a puppy mill breeder in or near Hillsboro, Missouri who advertises on ebay classifieds.  That breeder is within a half hour's drive of Budweiser's world headquarters in St. Louis, and not very far from the rescue in Illinois.

The puppy mill advertiser noted that two of her dogs had "just filmed a Budweiser Super Bowl commercial" that was to be part of a "Twitter" Super Bowl promotion featuring her dogs and a Budweiser Clydesdale in St. Louis.  Below, are a few screen shots of the ad taken from my iPhone.

If you google the phone number, as I did, you will discover that this is a "pump and dump" breeder selling her dogs through "Next Day Pets" and any, and every, other outlet she can find.  Do you want AKC papers with your dial-up-pup?  No problem -- just pay $50 more.

The two dogs the puppy miller brags about being "her" dogs in the ad appear be the same ones at Southern Paws rescue in Illinois where they are (or were) also being promoted as dogs used as part of a Budweiser "Twitter" campaign.  Same number of dogs, same reference to Twitter, same geographical area.

So, was I wrong in my initial post that said the dogs we see in the Budweiser "Puppy Love" ad were not rescue dogs put up for "adoption," but were, in fact, high-end puppies sourced from a commercial breeder?

No.  On that point I appear to be right.  Following up on a tip, I emailed a Labrador breeder in Oregon. She was very circumspect about whether the dogs in the "Puppy Love" ad were her dogs, but she was also firm that they were not Missouri dogs, and she also suggested that she might have had to sign confidentiality papers with Budweiser.

Right.  That would be the case if Budweiser wanted the Super Bowl ad to run its course without having to admit that they had started their big Super Bowl ad with a very visible lie (the Puppy Adoption sign). A confidentiality agreement is how you would keep the lid on that until after the Super Bowl advertising hit had passed on by.

From news accounts sent to me this morning, it now appears eight puppies from an Oregon breeder (I believe it is the same one I communicated with) were used to film the "Puppy Love" spot.

To be clear, there is is no harm in intelligent and ethical, purpose-bred commercial dog breeding, as I noted in my original post.  That said, let's not claim these dogs are being "adopted" from a rescue.  If Budweiser wants to wrap itself in the mantle of standing up for REAL puppy love, they do not have to go far to prove their worth, as Missouri is the puppy mill capital of America.  The campaign to end puppy milling in that state is always looking for more money, more political muscle, and more publicity. Anheuser Busch, I would venture to say, has plenty of all three if they will lend it to the cause (and yes, I am sure there is a heart-rending ad to be found in there too).

So was I wrong that at least some of the dogs being used in the Budweiser ad campaign originated from a commercial Puppy Mill?

No, it appears I was right about that too. The Southern Paws rescue says two of the dogs used by Budweiser in a Twitter-based promotion in St. Louis were rescued from a horrible situation on December 26. I believe these dogs are, in fact, the same two dogs the puppy miller said came from her breeding.

But did I get it all right?  

No!

It appears the two Missouri dogs were in rescue before they were used in the Budweiser ad campaign, and never mind that the puppy mill breeder apparently knew all about the Budweiser promotion before it was announced on The Today Show on January 29th.

To be clear, Budweiser has put together very good dog and beer ads in the past, including those that have featured, and promoted, both rescue and pedigree dogs.

But is "Puppy Love" a well thought-out ad, either as a promotion vehicle for beer, or as an ethics-based message about dogs or animals?

No and no.  

Budweiser knew, from the beginning, that the "Puppy Adoption" sign was a misrepresentation, but they were stuck because the script they green-lighted needed a lot of "puppy clones" for this ad to work, since very young dogs can only learn a few tricks in a short amount of time.  The solution was to hang a sign that said "puppy adoption" at the front of the ad, while leasing a large litter of puppies from a high-end commercial breeder, and crossing their fingers that no one would raise a question about veracity.  "Hey, it's advertising; it;'s all a lie," would be the water-cooler defense.

But here's a question: Why not produce this exact same spot with a real adult rescue dog?  

Simple:  people melt at the sight of fat, awkward puppies.

A lot more people want a puppy than want a DOG, and never mind if the cute puppy they buy ends up being a very inconvenient, expensive, and destructive animal that is abandoned to a shelter six or nine months down the road .

Because a puppy is not a dog, two million canines a year end up dying at kill shelters in this country every year -- 60 million pounds of dead dogs every 12 months.

Will this ad help reduce that number, or increase it?  Or is that even the question?

Perhaps the only real question is whether this ad, which has nothing to do with beer at all, will help sell more bottles of stale, pale, ale.  Budweiser is counting that it will.

• Related Links:
  ** Budweiser's Super Bowl Ad FAIL
  ** Two GOOD Budweiser Ads With Dogs
  ** AKC Loves Puppy Mills ... and the Naïve
  ** The AKC Embraces the "Big Wink" of Misery Pups
  ** AKC Depends on Puppy Mills to Subsidize Shows
  ** The AKC Helps Sell Puppy Mill Dogs for Petland