Say “Bye” to a Decade of Bovine-Featuring Ads? Have a Cow-less 2010, Man.

When the Huffington Post revealed that new “Happy Cows come from California” ads will be filmed in New Zealand instead of our own West Coast, it became clear that 2009 really has been a year of change, change, change. Maybe it’s time we ad professionals put aside cows altogether – use some other of God’s creatures in the new decade ahead.

It’s going to be tough. One hardly expects Chick-Fil-A to get along without them. The now-iconic nature of this restaurant’s spokes-moos – and one of America’s most enjoyable websites, too – is hardly dented by the odd Chick-Fil-A® Bowl coming in January at the Georgia Bowl, whatever that is.

I’m not precisely guiltless in regards to using cows for advertising purposes, either. I created my first one (an ad with a cow that is) back in the early ‘70s, for Nutrena Feeds. My latest you know about, part of the print series for Lactrol® antimicrobials that I blogged about here.

I guess the Beginning of the Fall for bovines (or cow-tipping-point) began with the UK’s Cravendale Cows a couple of years back – a wonderful series of “TV Adverts for Cravendale Fresh Milk, which has a hint of something sooo good, the Strawberry Cows want it back.” It was a Sixth Sense concept that was suspended because the campaign supposedly frightened children. Wonderfully funny, though.

And finally, today, the real reason is revealed in the cartoon strip “Pearls Before Swine ” by Stephan Pastis. I did NOT expect this revelation at all.

So this affirms my resolution: No cows in ads this coming year! Or at least, not ‘til February. Happy New Year, everyone.

“Pearls Before Swine” © 2009, United Feature Syndicate, Inc. All rights reserved.

LACTROL© Mooves

When you haven’t had a chance to use a cow or a pig in an ad campaign for a couple of decades, it’s nice to put ‘em up on the board. So thanks to Houston agency CMS for getting me involved, along with designer/art director Dan Fisler, in creating this new campaign.

Now appearing in ethanol-related publications, the new ads for PhibroChem’s LACTROL antimicrobial gave me a chance focus on consumers: Cows, pigs and chickens. (There’s a third ad with the chicken, that didn’t make it out of the hen house.)

As usual in business-to-business advertising, this wasn’t a straightforward assignment. PhibroChem Division of Phibro manufactures this LACTROL brand of virginiamyacin to effectively control the bacteria that occurs when corn ferments into alcohol. The bacteria reduces the production of ethanol.

At the same time, it contaminates “distiller’s grains” – the afterproduct of ethanol production that is used for animal feeds. Which means that animal feeds could be contaminated as well. Use LACTROL and ethanol producers can produce uncontaminated byproduct, which they can then sell for safer feeds.

Market-proven LACTROL also happens to have a “No Objection” letter from the US Food and Drug Administration. It’s a safety point and a selling point…the reasons behind PhibroChem’s moove into the feed contamination issue. (There’s another one of those awful puns – mark it up to Saturday.)

I’m glad to have had the chance to create the headlines and copy – a well done to Fisler for the art direction.