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Product type | Cat food |
---|---|
Owner | J.M. Smucker |
Country | United States |
Introduced | 1974 |
Markets | Worldwide |
Tagline | Tastes so good, cats ask for it by name |
Website | www |
Meow Mix is a product of The J.M. Smucker Company (as of March 23, 2015); a variety of dry and wet cat food known for its advertising jingle. Meow Mix was introduced in 1974 and sells many flavors, including "Original Choice" and "Seafood Medley". It also is known for selling "Alley Cat" dry cat food. Their current slogan is "it's the only brand cats ask for by name".
The Meow Mix Company operates from a 200,000-square-foot (19,000 m2) facility in Decatur, Alabama, and produces Alley Cat brand cat food products. Originally a product of Ralston-Purina, Meow Mix was divested for antitrust reasons in the early 2000s. The brand was acquired by Del Monte Foods in May, 2006. Their most famous slogan is, "Tastes so good, cats ask for it by name." The company was acquired by Cypress Group, a New York-based private equity firm in a $425 million leveraged buyout in 2003. Three years later, Del Monte Foods acquired the company for $705 million. [1] [2] The company had also been owned by J.W. Childs Associates which acquired the business in 2001 for $160 million. On March 23, 2015, parent company Big Heart Pet Brands was acquired by The J.M. Smucker Company [3] for $5.8 billion. [4]
The Meow Mix Theme was written by Shelly Palmer in 1970. [5] The idea came from Ron Travisano, at the advertising agency of Della Femina Travisano and Partners, who had the account with Ralston-Purina in 1974. The first TV spot aired in 1974 and consisted of animals walking across the screen. [6] Travisano put together film footage with editor Jay Gold, looping footage of a cat, both in forward and reverse to make it look like it was "singing". The music was then composed by Tom McFaul of the jingle house Lucas/McFaul, one of the major jingle-composing houses at the time. Working from Travisano's film, McFaul wrote and produced music to fit, with the actual meowing performed by professional singer Linda November. [7] [8] Travisano then came up with the idea of adding English "translation" subtitles, along with a bouncing ball pointing out the words, which often reflected the specific flavor(s) of Meow Mix product being advertised and changed from commercial to commercial. [9]
"The Meow Mix Theme" was used by the United States Central Intelligence Agency as part of torture and interrogation programs. [10]
The J.M. Smucker Company, also known as Smuckers, is an American manufacturer of food and beverage products. Headquartered in Orrville, Ohio, the company was founded in 1897 as a maker of apple butter. J.M. Smucker currently has three major business units: consumer foods, pet foods, and coffee. Its flagship brand, Smucker's, produces fruit preserves, peanut butter, syrups, frozen crustless sandwiches, and ice cream toppings.
Ralston Purina Company was a St. Louis, Missouri,–based American conglomerate with substantial holdings in animal feed, food, pet food, consumer products, and entertainment. On December 12, 2001, it merged with Swiss food-giant Nestlé's Friskies division to form Nestlé Purina PetCare Company.
The Pillsbury Company is a US-based company that was one of the world's largest cake manufacturers and producers of grain and other foodstuffs until it was bought by General Mills in 2001. Antitrust law required General Mills to sell off some of the products, so the company kept the rights to refrigerated and frozen Pillsbury branded products, while dry baking products and frosting were sold to the Orrville, Ohio–based Smucker company under license. Brynwood Partners agreed to purchase Pillsbury's dry baking and frosting assets from Smuckers for $375 million in July 2018. In September 2018, the sale was completed along with other brands including Martha White and Hungry Jack.
Jif is an American brand of peanut butter made by The J.M. Smucker Company, which purchased the brand from Procter & Gamble in 2001.
Nestlé Purina PetCare, or simply Purina, is an American subsidiary of the Swiss corporation Nestlé, based in St. Louis, Missouri. It produces and markets pet food, treats, and cat and dog litter. Some of its pet food brands include Purina Pro Plan, Purina Dog Chow, Friskies, Beneful and Purina One. The company was formed in 2001 by combining Nestlé's Friskies PetCare Company with Ralston Purina, which acquired it for $10.3 billion. As of 2012, it is the second-largest pet food company globally and the largest in the United States.
Gravy Train is an American dog food brand currently marketed by Post Consumer Brands. On April 28, 2023, it was one of several brands sold by The J.M. Smucker Company to Post Holdings, in a deal valued at $1.2 billion.
Del Monte Foods Inc. is an American food production and distribution company and subsidiary of NutriAsia, headquartered in Walnut Creek, California. Del Monte Foods is one of the largest producers, distributors and marketers of branded processed food for the U.S. retail market, generating approximately $1.73 billion of annual sales. Its portfolio of brands includes Del Monte, S&W, Contadina, College Inn, Kitchen Basics, Joyba, and Take Root. Greg Longstreet is the current Chief Executive Officer of Del Monte Foods. Several Del Monte products hold the number one or two market share position. The company also produces, distributes and markets private-label food.
Kibbles 'n Bits is a brand name for dog food that The J.M. Smucker Co. decided to include among the pet food brands sold to Post Holdings. On April 28, 2023, PH announced that it had completed the acquisition of Kibbles 'n Bits, which is now marketed by Post Consumer Brands.
Alpo is an American brand of dog food marketed and manufactured by the Nestlé Purina PetCare subsidiary of Nestlé. The brand is offered as a canned or packaged soft food, as well as in dry kibbles.
9Lives is a brand of cat food launched in 1959. Better known today by its mascot, Morris, it has four varieties of dry food, and five lines of wet food in various flavors.
Milk-Bone is a brand of dog biscuit. It was created in 1908 by the F.H. Bennett Biscuit Company, which operated a bakery on the Lower East Side of New York City. Originally named "Maltoid", the biscuit was a bone-shaped treat made from minerals, meat products, and milk. The biscuits are made exclusively in Buffalo, New York.
Purina One, styled as Purina ONE, is a brand of premium dog and cat food made by Nestlé Purina PetCare. Purina ONE foods typically contain some type of meat as their first named ingredient, while still containing by-products, grain fragments, and whole corn.
Dick Van Patten's Natural Balance Pet Foods is an American pet food manufacturer with its headquarters located in Burbank, Los Angeles, California. Established in 1989 by actor Dick Van Patten, the company markets itself as "Food For a Lifetime" and promotes itself as having "the finest food you can buy for your pet." A subsidiary of Big Heart Pet Brands, it was previously owned by the J.M. Smucker Company until February 2021, when it was sold to Nexus Capital Management LP.
Friskies is an American brand of wet and dry cat food and treats owned by Nestlé Purina PetCare Company, a subsidiary of Nestlé global. Friskies was initially introduced by Carnation Company in the 1930s as a dog food brand. When Friskies cat food was introduced in the 1950s, it was the first dry pet food product specifically for cats. The brand was acquired by Nestlé in 1985. From the 1970s to the 2000s, variations in Friskies cat food proliferated as the competition for consumer spending intensified.
Ralcorp Holdings is an American manufacturer of various food products, including breakfast cereal, cookies, crackers, chocolate, snack foods, mayonnaise, pasta, and peanut butter. The company is based in St. Louis, Missouri. The majority of the items Ralcorp makes are private-label, store-brand products. It has over 9,000 employees. Ralcorp has its headquarters in the Bank of America Plaza in downtown St. Louis.
Linda Ellen November is an American singer who has sung tens of thousands of commercial jingles. She was the voice of the singing cat in the Meow Mix commercials, sang the jingle "Galaxy Glue" in the 1981 film The Incredible Shrinking Woman, the "Coke and a Smile" jingle in the classic Mean Joe Greene Super Bowl commercial, and has won many Clio Awards for her work on television and radio.
Fancy Feast is a brand of cat food from Nestlé Purina PetCare. Introduced by the Carnation Company in 1982, it was originally offered in seven flavors of wet food.
Hostess CupCake is an American brand of snack cake produced and distributed by Hostess Brands and currently owned by The J.M. Smucker Company. Its most common form is a chocolate cupcake with chocolate icing and vanilla creme filling, with seven distinctive white squiggles across the top. However, other flavors have been available at times. It has been claimed to be the first commercially produced cupcake and has become an iconic American brand.
Big Heart Pet Brands was an American company that manufacturers, distributes and markets branded pet food and other products for the U.S. retail market. Formerly a subsidiary of J.M. Smucker Co., it was headquartered at the One Maritime Plaza in San Francisco.
Mark Timothy Smucker is an American businessman who has been the president and CEO of The J.M. Smucker Company since May 2016. He is the fifth-generation member of the Smucker family to lead the business, a now publicly traded Fortune 500 company encompassing coffee, packaged food, and pet food, headquartered in Orrville, Ohio.