It is a grey, rainy bank holiday weekend here in London so my news is appropriately frivolous. If you inspect the image below, you will see that my local Tesco supermarket in Surrey Quays shopping center is carrying an own-brand of pet food with a startlingly familiar look:
Double-take Cleverly misguided marketing mimicry, or coincidence?
My alert spy (a scientist who doesn’t want to be named for fear of becoming embroiled in any legal crossfire) snapped this image on his mobile phone camera yesterday in the pet food aisle, and reports that there is both a feline and canine version of the “JustNature” product.
I know it has to be a coincidence, because what sort of package designer could possibly think (no offense, Matt and Corie) that the NPG brand would hold any subconscious sway over ordinary British pet owners? Nevertheless, having received the subversive message myself, I am now wondering what the food’s impact factor is, and whether I really ought to ditch the Purina Felix in favor of the top-tier grub.
I think I might have to buy some for The Beast when I’m over there.
Oh, he’s just looked up and licked his lips. Look like I have little choice.
Be careful, Bob – it might make him do two more years’ worth of experiments and come up with a mechanism.
Maybe it’s Henry. That makes a lot of sense—he needs to keep in crocs somehow.
I think he would have gone for the guinea pig market.
Here’s some rather tasty looking ‘Nature’ pate.
Oh my goodness. It’s spreading.
And keeping my cat in the manner to which he has grown accustomed certainly does not warrant that. Bob, tell the beast to look away now.
Ah, I distracted him with a chicken bone. He would probably turn away anyway – for the past week the only time I’ve wanted to show him a web page, it’s been the Olympics medal table. He’s Australian.
I would not advise trying to find out the impact factor of the food. You’ll be the one cleaning it up afterwards.
As long as he aims it at the neighbors’ gardens, it’s fine with me!
Amjit, my trusty local shopkeeper/legal adroit, has dutifully requested that I should, with immediate effect, draw one’s attention to the following
Disclaimer:
My mini-market really does its best to provide the most accurate and up-to-date product images and information, although errors like this, may occur. Also, we do not cover all product information. All images and information are subject to change. Information we provide (including ingredients, nutritional information, traffic lights, roundabout details and allergies information) is extracted from the ‘back of pack’. In places, this data is conformed across products to provide a uniform basis for comparison. (Click here for more details of that basis.) It is important that you do not rely solely on information on my shop window. My mini-market does not assume liability to anyone for loss or damage resulting from errors or omission in respect of information presented.
Yes, but are his lettuces firm and unwilted?
So hard to find firm lettuces at one’s local corner shop.
Yes, but are his lettuces firm and unwilted?
One would need to ask Mrs Amjit about that.
Amjit’s fine array of vegetables though are indeed firm and in general, unwilted. We don’t really eat much lettuce in Glasgow.
—
In an unrelated related incident today, as the Olympic torch was handed over to
BoratMr Boris, NN caption competition 1.67 got flagged up only for the second time to date.“No thanks, General, I’m trying to cut down.”
caption – I hear that old fart from led zeppelin will be appearing in the closing ceremony?
Nature pet food. Curses, and I would have gotten away with it, too, if it hadn’t been for those
medallingmeddling bloggers.For reasons of competing interests, it would be inappropriate of me to feed Nature pet food to my own animals. Heidi eats ‘Science Diet’ dog food.
HAHAHAHA.
We set ’em up, you knock ’em down.
Yes, Henry, general consensus here was that
old farts from Led Zeppelin should have been left back at homethe Chinese did a fine job with the pageantry of the closing ceremony. And Boris should have buttoned his jacket and taken his hands out of his pockets. What a schlumper.A most excellent caption entry Dr Rohn. Thanks.
Henry, have you considered feeding Heidi an open-access brand?
Steel ducks for
monumental abusecover and calls his lawyers lawyer.—
My choice of the day remains this rather amazing home edited video
Alas, since British Telecom seems only to be able to provide about 1 femtobyte per second in this
secluded cabin in the wilds of SiberiaZone 2 Central London neighborhood, it’s beyond my ken.Here, in the wild Glens, we have a faster connection than within the Zone 2 Central London neighborhood.
You’re having a laugh?
Viva Las Glasgow then.
Henry, have you considered feeding Heidi an open-access brand?
I’ve just noticed that Hills Science Diet has a Nature’s Menu range, and the Nature is in the same old Nature typography. There’s a meme going around, clearly.
I wonder how old it is and who started it? Maybe Tesco will have the last laugh after all.
Late night greetings from Chez Gee, Jennifer – best lettuce dolce verde from Tesco, Heather – I couldn’t even see BoJo behind the flag. When I interviewed him last year I wanted to sort his hair out. Back to the pet food issue – we spend a small fortune on such superior stuff but seems to agree with Heidi and co, the consequence of using anything cheaper for our zoo is just horrid (won’t go into it in case any of you wonderful people are having breakfast right now!) Hope you enjoy the blog conference.
Hi Richard, sorry forgot to say burn those crocs with my blessing! I’m a Birkenstocks girl.
Woman, keep your hands of my footwear, if you know what’s good for you.
Mrs Gee is sitting next to me armed with Gee Minima’s laptop, while I have my Eee. She claims to be ‘too tired’ to respond to the above comment. Here at the Maison Des Gs we really know how to live,
“of” is now replaced with “off” – Kindly, said Steel in place of Grant who’s up in the air.
Penny, it’s good to know that you are keeping Henry in line. I mean, somebody has to.
You can tell it’s a bank holiday, can’t you?
This is what passes for stirring intellectual discussion in the motherland, lest you’d forgotten.
Bora has reported on the open access problem. Whilst I find his argument convincing, I do wonder how they’ll use it in their advertising.
I can’t decide if Bora has posted an homage or just poached my scoop. Still, I can’t see this thing spreading as far and wide as the PCR song.
So that’s what happens to researchers who repeatedly submit manuscripts to Nature journals, only to have them summarily rejected by annoyed editors.
Might explain why I haven’t been able to contact some former colleagues in the UK for years….
Heh. They might not be of high enough quality. Perhaps your colleagues are all glue.
@Kristi. McDawg wasn’t seriously suggesting anything in the genre of Soylent Green
I’ve never seen the film before but you can watch it in it’s entirety here
(Incidentally, this is the longest YouTube video I’ve ever come across)
JustNature is scientists!
:-(
Kind of adds new meaning to the expression ‘leaky pipeline’.
I think ‘JustNature was scientists’ might be more apt – allegedly.
One of our
submarinescomputational biologists is missing BTW.Yes, papers consisting of models have a particularly hard time at Nature.
For the record Jenny, I selected comp. biologists purely at random for that particular gag.
Talking of models though (in this case Lego), check oot Eddie Izzard – Death Star Canteen
Saw this months ago, but if got flagged up again today, this time on FriendFeed.
++Warning++ This contains some strong language (what do you expect from Mr Izzard though)
The perfect way to end a bank holiday.
Mind The Gap™ will resume its normal level of seriousness (cough) tomorrow. Thank you for your patience.