alpo dog food
Alpo (pet food)
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Dog food brand
Alpo is an American brand of dog food marketed and manufactured by the Nestl Purina PetCare subsidiary of Nestl. The brand is offered as a canned or packaged soft food, as well as in dry kibbles.
History[edit]
Alpo, an abbreviation of Allen Products, was founded in 1936 by Robert F. Hunsicker in Allentown, Pennsylvania.[1] The original factory was located in a small building at the southwest corner of New and Cedar streets.[citation needed]
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 retained Alpo Petfoods, Inc. In 1995, Nestl SA acquired Alpo Petfoods, Inc. from Grand Metropolitan. In January 2001, Nestl SA announced the merger of Nestl Friskies with Ralston Purina to form the Nestl Purina PetCare Company.[2]
Marketing[edit]
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.[citation needed]
Alpo is also known for its marketing campaigns that target the owners of "real dogs", making light of consumers who pamper their dogs.[3][4]
