Fresh dog food maker Furry's Kitchen put together an elaborate tasting event of its products for Singapore's top “food influencers” at the new restaurant of a renowned chef who prepared the dog food himself for his unsuspecting guests.
About the event’s strategy
The event, held at celebrity chef Justin Quek's new Terrier restaurant, served a three-course meal of artfully plated gourmet dishes based on Furry's Kitchen’s premium human-grade dog food. A video of the event was shared by advertising firm Ogilvy on social media that showed local epicureans approving of the meal, apparently totally clueless that the dishes used the same formulas meant for dogs.
The experimental advert wanted to make a point: that Furry's Kitchen dog food uses fresh ingredients like beef, broccoli, salmon, brown rice and more, sourced from the same suppliers used by local Singaporean restaurants and certified by the Singapore Food Agency.
“Our experiment with humans involved using Furry's Kitchen dog food as a base, plus some extra salt for our human friends,” the company said on Instagram.
Reactions to the tasting
One of the invited food critics, @alainlicious (who has nearly 22,000 followers on Instagram), said he would sum up the whole concept during and after the fact as completely intriguing. Later, he told Furry's Kitchen that he was totally impressed with the experiment and the experience.
Although many praised the almost-blind tasting event as advertising genius, others disapproved of the marketing idea and also questioned how self-proclaimed food influencers could fail to tell human and dog food apart. Most of the dishes featured minced protein and vegetables straight from Furry's Kitchen bags that chef Quek shaped into terrines or meatballs and layered with other ingredients.
Ogilvy said Furry's Kitchen has moved away from dog chow by pushing for premium, freshly cooked human-grade dog food approved by the Singapore Animal Veterinary Service, with no preservatives, additives or by-products.
“For dog parents or owners, the line between what goes onto their plates and into their pets' bowls may have only gotten thinner — if not completely erased,” said Ogilvy, which ended its eyebrow-raising video with this (dog) food for thought: If food influencers loved it, imagine your dog.
