User:Mkpalmer/Personal Sandbox

User Mkpalmer (Malorie Palmer) sandbox

Comments

ARTICLE IS OFF TO A GOOD START; A LITTLE MORE FOR AN INTRO AND HISTORY IF POSSIBLE WOULD BALANCE OUT THE OTHER SECTIONS. REFERENCING NEEDS TO BE CONSISTENT ACCORDING TO ONE METHOD, PROBABLY THE FOOTNOTE TRADITIONAL WAY IS BEST--USE THE WIZARD.

PLEASE MAKE A CLEAN COPY IN PATHFINDER'S SANDBOX--MY FAULT FOR NOT TELLING YOU EARLIER. THIS IS THE BEST PATH TO MOVING IT TO THE WIKISPACE.

-Webster Newbold (talk) 17:38, 20 March 2012 (UTC)

Hi folks. Just taking a look at your sourcing so far. I think you need to keep digging. Google Knol is a pretty much a wiki, and we all know they aren't reliable ;) But we can't use that. The Purina source is pretty closely related to the subject; much better to get something third party for that, like maybe a St. Louis newspaper article? Your library has online databases. Be looking for business magazine articles, trade journals for pet food, scientific research on pet food, academic writing on marketing, etc. Stuff with editorial oversight. Have fun, the digging part can be very engrossing. The Interior (Talk) 06:06, 14 March 2012 (UTC)

• Second Review Good work on the nutritional information, I think you've found adequate sourcing for that. The sentence: "Compared to most dog treats, Beggin' Strips are pretty healthy." should either be sourced or dropped. The paragraph on Purina in general (starting: "Beggin’ Strips were first sold in 1993") is problematic. The source is not about the product, nor is the content you've given here. It is also not very neutral; it paints the company in a very positive light with no critical couterpoint. I like the bit on the parade, and the newspaper article is a decent source for that. The first marketing paragraph is unsourced and really needs one. Right now, I'd say that about 50% of this content needs work before it is included. Best, The Interior (Talk) 23:13, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

Final Instructor comment

Let's see if anything more can be done to bring this up to publishable levels

History—contains additional marketing info, not strictly speaking history

Nutrition—loking good, but last two sentences need attention; "in ration" isn't clear, and final sent needs a citation

Marketing—improved; but maybe should be merged with marketing material from history section. The history section may be short when you're done, but everything on Wikipedia is improvable

References need to be redone with more complete info (titles) to avoid error messages. All in all making progress--almost there!

—Webster Newbold (talk) 16:32, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

Beggin' Strips

Beggin' Strips is a brand of dog treats manufactured and sold in North America by Nestlé's Nestlé Purina PetCare division. Beggin' Strips are designed to resemble strips of bacon.

History

Beggin’ Strips were first sold in 1993. Nestle Purina started off by selling this product in North America. While Beggin’ Strips are not nutritionally beneficial to pets, throughout history the product has been praised as “more healthy than table scraps.” This is supported by Nestle Purina Petcare, who offers various coupons and other savings for Beggin’ Strips.

Nutrition

Purina Beggin' Strips are made of real bacon but are enhanced with artificial ingredients. According to Purina's Beggin' Strip website the initial bacon is preserved with sodium nitrite and BHA. Base ingredients for additional additives include ground wheat, corn gluten meal, wheat flour, ground yellow corn, water, sugar, glycerin, soybean meal hydrogenated starch hydrolysate, meat phosphoric acid, sorbic acid, natural and artificial smoke flavors. Depending on the flavor, artificial coloring is also added. There are six flavors and according to the Dickinson-McNeill Veterinary Clinic of New Jersey and the Seaside Animal Clinic of North Carolina, each treat is about 30 calories. A brand designed for smaller pets, the Beggin' Little's, are about 6-8 calories. Calories of dog biscuits, chew bones, and bacon bites sold from other competitive companies sometimes soar way past 30 calories. According to the Seaside Animal Clinic of North Carolina, a healthy dog, depending on its size, should eat anywhere between 300 to 1,200 calories. A single 30 calorie treat falls way beneath a proportionate meal size and can be given daily with no long term harm. Contrary to popular belief, dog treats can be healthy when given moderately.

Marketing

Beggin' Strips are mostly famous for their television advertising, beginning in 1994, after they began selling their product in 1993. Shown from a dog's perspective, the excited pet smells Beggin' Strips and is convinced that he is smelling real bacon, exclaiming, "It's BACON!" The voice of the dog was done by Mississippi University for Women's Professor Eric Harlan. More recently, a new commercial was written and voiced by New York comedian Alex Bloom. The product's catchphrase is "Dogs Don't Know It's Not Bacon!"

The trademark bag for the product also makes Beggin’ Strips easily recognizable among consumers. The bag features a cartoon dog licking his chops while awaiting a treat. Drawn up in 1994, the dog was named "Hamlet." Hamlet was chosen to appear in Nestle Purina's advertising for Beggin' Strips, and to represent the product.

Shortly after the initial sale of Beggin' Strips, coupons for the product were released to try to build support for the treats.

Today, Purina still hosts their annual Beggin' Pet Parade around the time of Mardi Gras. It is held every year in Soulard, a historic French neighborhood in St. Louis, Missouri and might possibly be the world's largest pet parade, hosting over 5,000 pets and their owners. St. Louis's Waterloo Courier also covered the Beggin' Strips Stupid Dog Contest on July 4th, 1999. This contest offers multiple monetary prizes, the grand prize being a $5,000 supply of Beggin' Strips per year and a trip to see the Late Show with David Letterman in New York.