Dairy ads

It's time for another look through Progressive Dairyman to see what's for sale!

This week I'm going to focus on the 'showing' part of the ad.

In few ads for human products do they show you the picture of the malady. For instance, you almost never see a real picture of toenail fungus. Instead, the commercials show a gross cartoonish character. (Which is gross enough, of course.)

But the ads here ...

They want to show you it, warts and all. Literally.

I guess that works as an educational tool as well. For instance, say you didn't know what your cows had. You browse through the magazine, and - they must have warts!

Warts on hooves are bad for cattle because it hurts them. We use a foot bath to prevent and treat warts.

The same applies to pinkeye. I've never seen a human pinkeye treatment that shows a kid with crusty, weepy eye. Maybe I don't see enough parenting magazines, but that seems out of place.

But the dairy magazines - yes! How do you know it's pinkeye if you don't know what it looks like?

Need a closer look?

A different product? And picture? Yes, please!

But it's not to say that everything about the ads is different. It's certainly not.

Take a look at this next ad. It's for Animat, a company that sells mats for cattle to lie on in barns.

So among the infected hooves and eyes you see a pretty milkmaid? It stands out. Not only does the old adage 'sex sells' apply, but she looks even better next to warts.

Creative ads

Like I've said before, I used to work as a marketing writer at TechSmith. We often had a company come in with print ad ideas for our products. I always thought it was interesting and fun to see what wildly creative ideas they would show us.

I wonder what type of direction they give advertisers for farming magazines, because they are frequently eye-catching. Let me give you a sample from just one magazine - February's Dairy Today.

Ads like this always make me stop and look. It's by Novus International. They develop animal health and nutrition programs. Naturally. That is one strong cow. Or creepy human who's been getting into the cattle feed?

There's a lot to look at in this picture. There's a cow driving the tractor, two cows high-fiving (hooving), three carrying a board, one pushing a broom, one shoveling, and two standing with a clipboard. The cows eating are obviously the slackers of the group? The ad line is: "Healthy cows work harder." It's for EXCENEL RTU, which is a medicine that treats uterine infection and other diseases. I like to think that the artist who drew this was having a great time. Those are some good-looking udders.

And last ...

This one is for Bovi-Shield Gold, which is a vaccine that prevents reproductive diseases. This one reads, "If she can't stay pregnant, what else will she do?" The answer to this one is: be a bird dog-cow. It's a series of ads. What career choice will she make next?!

Maybe something in advertising.