Alpo (pet food)

Alpo

Type	Private
Industry	Pet food
Founded	1936
Area served	Worldwide
Products	Dog food
Owner(s)	Nestle Purina Petcare
Website	www.alpo.com

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.

History

Alpo, an abbreviation of Allen Products, was founded in 1936 by Robert F. Hunsicker in Allentown, PA. In 1964, the Allen Products Company was acquired by Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company. In 1980, the Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company was acquired by Grand Metropolitan and in 1986 Grand Metropolitan sold the Liggett Group but kept Alpo Petfoods, Inc.. In 1995, Nestlé SA acquired Alpo Petfoods, Inc. from Grand Metropolitan. In January 2001, Nestlé SA announced the merger of Nestlé Friskies with Ralston Purina to form Nestlé Purina Petcare Company.

Recall

On March 30, 2007, the brand's Prime Cuts & Gravy wet variety of dog food was recalled after gluten supplied to Purina was linked to being the same variety and from the same supplier as the brands affected by the Menu Foods Pet Food Recall.^{[citation needed]}

Marketing

For many years, the brand's main television commercial spokesman was Lorne Greene, who created the concept of eating one's own dog food by claiming that Alpo is so good he feeds it to his own dogs. Ed McMahon also had a long association with the product on television, and Garfield was a "spokescat" for the brand in the 1990s. Alpo was the sponsor of the debut broadcast of the long-running television news magazine 60 Minutes, on September 24, 1968.

Alpo is also known for its marketing campaigns that target the owners of "real dogs," making light of consumers who pamper their dogs. The campaign's tagline is "Real Dogs Eat Meat."^{[citation needed]}

External links

• Alpo Brand Dog Food
• Press Release on recall from Purina.com