Welfare in every frame
A pet ad teaches as well as sells, and generated scenes happily show things vets warn against: a dog in a parked car, a cat lapping milk, grapes or chocolate within reach, a rabbit alone in a small hutch, a puppy on a slippery floor with a toy small enough to swallow. Brief welfare rules explicitly and review for them. Breed choice is part of welfare too. UK veterinary and welfare bodies, through the Brachycephalic Working Group, have asked brands to stop using flat-faced breeds such as pugs and French bulldogs in advertising because demand fuels serious health problems, and image models can exaggerate the very features, big eyes and short muzzles, that cause them.
Breeds and species, exactly
Pet owners know their animals better than any art director. A 'Labrador' with a setter's coat, a Maine Coon with the wrong ears, a colour or pattern the breed does not come in, or a hamster that is really a gerbil will be noticed quickly, usually in public. Accuracy also carries product meaning: a large-breed puppy food shown with a small-breed adult, or a senior formula with a young dog, contradicts the pack. Keep a reference library of approved breed imagery, check coat colours against breed standards, and save recurring animals as reusable characters so the same dog appears consistently across a campaign.
Pet food names and labels
Pet food naming follows percentage rules. In the US, AAFCO's model regulations, adopted by most states, say a product called 'Beef Dog Food' must be at least 95 per cent beef, excluding water added for processing; 'Beef Dinner' or similar needs at least 25 per cent; 'with Beef' needs 3 per cent; and 'Beef Flavor' only needs to be detectable. In Europe, FEDIAF's labelling code sets different thresholds: 4 per cent for 'with beef', 14 per cent for 'rich in beef' and 26 per cent for 'beef' in the name. Imagery must respect the same logic: a pack with a small share of salmon should not sit beside a whole fillet as if that were the recipe. 'Complete' or 'complete and balanced' is a nutritional statement with its own requirements, so generated copy must never add it to a complementary food or treat.
Health claims, vets and medicines
Pet food may not claim to prevent, treat or cure disease. In the EU, Regulation (EC) No 767/2009 bars such claims on feed, though dietetic feeds may claim the particular nutritional purposes listed in Regulation (EU) 2020/354, such as support of renal function. In the US, a disease claim can make a pet food an unapproved animal drug in the FDA's eyes. Veterinary medicines are stricter still: in the UK, prescription-only veterinary medicines cannot be advertised to the general public. The studio holds approved claims and banned words per product and market in the brand hub, so a 'supports joint health' line never quietly becomes 'treats arthritis' in a shorter variant.
Updated 25 September 2026 · General information, not legal advice. Rules change, so check the current text with your legal team before relying on it.