Pooch and Mutt accuses MPMA of having a ‘vested interest’ in advertising row

Pet food manufacturer, Pooch and Mutt, has hit out at the MPMA (Metal Packaging Manufacturers Association), which according to the manufacturer, recently attempted to ban its adverts claiming cartons were more environmentally friendly than cans.

The MPMA have said that it feels Pooch & Mutt’s claims are not true and that cans are more environmentally friendly than cartons. William Boyd, director and chief executive of MPMA said Pooch and Mutt’s claims were “not true” and had added that he had asked Pooch & Mutt to clarify the source of the advert’s statements which said cartons were “80% more environmentally friendly than cans”.

Pooch and Mutt’s founder, Guy Blaskey said: “When we launched our wet food, just 6 months ago, we could have launched in any format we liked, such as cans, single-use plastic trays, we decided on TetraPak cartons, as they are undeniably the best environmental option. One of the key reasons that we are running the campaign is to help improve the perception of the TetraPak and improve recycling rates.

“Claiming that the can is more environmentally friendly because more people recycle them, is like claiming that smoking is good for you because lots of people smoke. It makes no sense. It would be better to stop people smoking and better for people to #ditchthecan.

“It would have been easy for us to run a campaign about the high quality, great ingredients that we put in our wet food cartons, or the lack of need for artificial preservatives which are in many big-brand pet foods, but we all need to start doing as much as we can to protect the environment. There is a lot of misinformation out there, with people who have a vested interest, such as the MPMA, cherry-picking their data.“

He added: “Studies (including the study by the IFEU – Institute for Energy and Environmental Research – Dec 2017, on which we based our claims in our advertising) have proven the environmental benefits of cartons vs cans, and it’s such an easy change for customers to make that we feel we need to let everyone know about it.”