A tastier "Meat pocket" and a happier pet.

The Marketing of products or services is the one thing on earth, other than crack cocaine that we are powerless to resist.

Many times you will come out of a Madison Avenue induced trance to find yourself clutching a phone to your ear, confirming your shipping address, and buying complete sets of Pasta Pots just because it was a "limited time offer."

The marketing people have lots of fancy charts and graphs that tell them what we like to eat,drink and excrete. Well these devious minds have hit the proverbial home run when it comes to the marketing of pet foods.

Take a stroll through the pet food aisle at your local grocery store and you will see what I mean. There is a veritable smorgasbord of delicacies that have been constructed, if you believe what the commercials tell us, to allow your precious Fido or Snowflake to have a culinary experience the likes of which could not be found outside of the finest French restaurants.

"New Meat Pockets","Made with real Kobe beef", "Reduce tarter", "Improve your pet's breath". The messages on the colorful packages of pet food assault our eyeballs until we find ourselves submitting to their message, and dragging a 50lb bag of Organic - pre chewed, pre seasoned, gastronomic orgasm inducing Dog Kibble to the checkout.

I'm not sure how many of you reading this are pet owners, but for those who are not let me explain a simple fact about pets and their eating preferences - they are not picky eaters.

Let me present exhibit A:



A dead varmint that has been "seasoning" under the porch for 3 weeks or the latest concoction from the pet food conglomerate? When given the choice, pets will take whatever is covered in dirt and/or hair. They also seem to prefer anything that smells like the bathroom after Uncle Larry visits.

The one phrase that seems to be emblazoned on all the pet food is- "Now with a new improved taste!" I ask you this - are we relying on the educated palate of your tom cat to verify this claim?

We need to conduct a taste test - similar to the Pepsi Challenge only using pet food with the "Original Meaty Chunks" and the "New Improved Meatier Chunks" recipe. Give out samples at your next dinner party and ask your friends to choose whether the new product is indeed tastier then the original.

Pets have limited ability to reason, so do the right thing for them and their health. Sample the pet food options yourself and choose an item that you feel your little Mitzy will truly appreciate. Don't rely on the Madison Avenue fat cats to tell you what your pet likes to eat. Who knows your pet better than you do? that's right - no one!