Meow Mix
- For the bar, see Meow Mix (bar).
Meow Mix is a popular variety of cat food, and is well known for its popular advertising jingle.
The Meow Mix Company operates from a 200,000 square foot facility in Decatur, Alabama, and also produces Alley Cat® brand cat food products. 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."
Jingle
Meow Mix is also well known for a popular advertising jingle used to promote the product.
The jingle was written by Shelly Palmer in 1970. The lyrics to said jingle were, "I want chicken, I want liver. Meow Mix, Meow Mix, please deliver." In commercials, it was typically meowed by a cat, with English subtitles.
Popular culture references
The jingle has become well known as part of American popular culture:
- In The Simpsons episode "The Boy Who Knew Too Much", Homer "sings" the jingle when Bart reads his thoughts in court.
- In the 1997 film Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, Dr Evil sings the jingle to try lure his cat Mr Bigglesworth out of hiding.
- In episode 114 of Malcolm in the Middle from season 6, Malcolm plays the family a song he wrote on guitar after Lois insists he will have no creative abilities. Dewie points out that he actually played the "Meow Mix" song and the whole family joins in on singing forcing Malcolm to give up his hopes of being creative in the field of music.
Meow Mix House
Meow Mix House was a reality TV show created by Meow Mix in the format of Survivor. Ten cats rescued from animal shelters nationwide (including the ASPCA in New York, Touched by an Animal in Chicago, and Kitten Rescue in Los Angeles) competed for a grand prize- an executive-level position with the Meow Mix Company. These three-minute reality TV segments aired on Animal Planet for 10 consecutive weeks, beginning on June 16, 2006.
The cats were viewable full time via webcam and were adopted as they are voted off of the show, receiving a year’s supply of Meow Mix as a consolation prize. Weekly contest winners for areas such as “Best Purr” and “Greatest Post Climber” were decided by a panel of judges. Two winners were chosen- one through professional judges and a second by TV viewers. The company stated that the winner received the title of Meow Mix’s “feline vice president of research,” as well as becoming part of a new family. A second corporate position was provided to the cat voted most popular by viewers.
Miami's Cisco won the top prize of VP of R&D at Meow Mix and Ellis from Portland won the title of viewers' choice winner.
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