Buy This, It's Wonderful

For years now, ever since we had one for a pet, CoolGuy and I have realized that if you see a Golden retriever in a commercial, the subliminal message is "Buy this stuff--it's wonderful and good for you and your whole family. You can tell--look, there's a Golden retriever in our ad."

I saw these wonderful fellows recently as their owner was walking them, near my house. I couldn't resist taking their picture, and, as Goldens are the friendliest dogs ever, they even smiled for the camera.

Well, recently I was glancing at a magazine and there was a photo of a Jersey cow. The point of the article was to get the reader's sympathy for factory-farm cows. I've seen big dairy operations. They are almost exclusively Holstein cows. It makes sense, because Holsteins give the most milk for the work and effort and hay. They are boring, too. No drama cow-mamas.  But, they also look boring and plain. If you want to represent machine-like cow-ness, then you use a Holstein's photo.

But if you want to generate sympathy for those sweet little cows...then isn't this face going to serve your purpose better? If you want to get your viewers to think warm, small family-farm thoughts about wholesome homegrown dairy products, then you're going to use the Golden retrievers of bovinity--voila:

Love me, love my milk and cheese. Everything about me is cuddly and wholesome and cute. See?? Just saying...advertisers are very calculating. Notice the Golden retrievers and Jersey cows in commercials and print ads. You'll see what I mean.