Friskies Dog Food Ad – March 3, 1955

I've had cats for quite a while now, and as many as three at one time. Currently, I only have one: Louie. Like his feline predecessors, Louie prefers Friskies® brand cat food – both the wet stuff that comes in cans, and the dry stuff in the bags.

But did you know that Friskies started out as a brand of dog food?

According to the Friskies Wiki page, Friskies dry dog food was first introduced in the early 1930s, and the canned version followed in 1948. It wasn't until 1958 that Friskies dry cat food was first sold. Eventually the canned cat food hit the store shelves as well.

Anyway, back to the dogs. Here's a very graphic, stylized ad for Friskies dry dog food that ran in the Lorain Journal on March 3, 1955 – 60 years ago this month.

The bag shown in the newspaper ad features the classic Friskies cartoon dog with the slurping tongue that symbolized the brand over the years. Here are a few dog-eared images of him from the internet.

Note that the serving directions on the vintage label below (courtesy of the collectologist2 flickr page) explains how the dog food – made of (yechh) horse meat – could also be served to cats. I thought old horses ended up at the glue factory – not in a serving dish!

Here's a great 1959 ad (below) from the flickr page of alsis35. Don't the Friskies Cubes kind of resemble pasta salad?

Now before this post goes entirely to the dogs, I'd better give the cats equal time. Here's an adorable 1963 Friskies cat food ad (below) showing the cat advertising mascot and can design. (I wonder how they got that cute shot back in those pre-Photoshop days?)

Courtesy Ebay

And here's a 1971 Friskies ad promoting both product lines – and canine & feline peace as well.

Courtesy atticpaper.com

Today, you can still buy both Friskies dog and cat food, but – alas! – the original advertising mascots are long-gone from the packaging. But Louie loves his Friskies Surfin' and Turfin' Favorites anyway.