Healthy dog treats why the main metro regions align with politics – 2017

In our last article we looked at “Healthy Dog treats” trends in America and which states and metro regions searched the most for them on Google in America in (averaged between 2010 and 2017). We did this because Australia Google doesn’t exist down to this level.

If a trend is going to catch and turn mainstream we have also learned in the cognitive dissonance article about the bass model of diffusion and why it takes both mass media and ‘word of mouth’ to really make any trend take off.

It still feels kind of weird having to call meat based dog treats a trend, since that is what dogs have eaten for tens of thousands of years, and their wolf ancestors ate for millions before then.  The species ideal food of meat has become so lost in commercial interests, selling wheat as dog food, that many people now think of meat as an occasional treat!

We listed the states and metro American places that ranked the highest per capita searches for ‘healthy dog treats’ between 2010 and 2017.  These are the areas that had the biggest search interest in healthy dog treats, and based on economic factors alone, it was difficult to understand the interest of the most significant states. 

BUT below we find a VERY strong correlation between healthy dog treat searches and Democratic metro areas.

For instance The top 6 states only had one average high income state in their ranks, but drilling down to the highest metro search locations it was easier to see which specific places (metro regions) within states were causing all of the buzz.  A low population state, with a low to mid interest in healthy dog treats was always going to outrank a high population state, with large land area and very diverse incomes that had mid interest in only the ‘rich’ areas. So to understand the drivers of healthy dog treat interest we had to look at what was happening at the metro level.

The reason ‘Healthy dog treats’ sell in USA might be political affiliation (or being a Democrat).

That’s a big call, and I am wondering if it translates to Australia at all? The problem for Australia of courses is that Google doesn’t provide ‘healthy dog treat’ data down to METRO level, and our politics in each state is much more homogenous than in America.  We don’t have incredibly strong Liberal (conservative) or Labor (Liberal) states as much as America has Democratic and Republican strong states.

Now I realise that since the last America election of 2016 that many states have changed their ‘colour’ during the google data collection period of 2010 to 2017.  The red republican states have overtaken many blue Democrat states, however in the main, this theory of mine has some great legs. Due to the disruption of the more regular order of party affiliations of the most recent US election, I have made a comparison of 2010-2017 ‘healthy dog treats’ trends TO a 2014 USA presidential vote state based map.

NOTE  The google data for the Healthy Dog Treat Trend in America was taken from the sample period 2010 to 2017 So the mid point is close to the 2014 election data maps anyway.  IE we are comparing like sample data date to like date, and any reference drawn is valid.

AMERICA – “healthy Dog Treat” most searched states V State Political affiliations

At first glance it might appear that there is a fairly even break up of Republican and Democrat states in the political map and in the table below.  This is true, but remember the state dilution factors discussed above. On a USA state based analysis, there is seemingly no correlation.

HOWEVER, when we compare the MAJOR METRO regions within USA (2010 – 2017) for Healthy Dog treats searches, with the METRO USA presendential vote party map, there is almost full alignment with DEMOCRAT REGIONS.

Miami-Ft Lauderdale FL 2016 presendential election result:

The one ODD result in the above table bothered me, so I thought I would check the 2016 election results for Fort Lauderdale Florida (instead of just the 2014 state results).

From the map at left you can see that about 75% of the people in that county voted DEMOCRAT, so the theory is very much on track. Overall, Florida state was REPUBLICAN, but the county that was the THIRD highest region to search for ‘Healthy Dog Treats’ on Google also voted 75% democrat.

CONCLUSION

This report doesn’t include statistical analysis, but the table above is very clear. The metro regions in USA that are most interested in ‘Healthy Dog Treats’ online tend to have a strong DEMOCRAT leaning at state level and most likely even more so at Metro level.

The reason is not purely economic or disposable income based, though that does help. Its not because Democrats love their dogs any more than republicans.

The simple reason might be that the REPUBLICAN party stands behind conservatism and NON CHANGE, while  Democrats are often called progressives or liberals, that are happy to take up new ideas, based on science and need.

That is a very basic statement that I am sure massively oversimplifies the current political state in America.  However it can’t be denied that there is a massive correlation between people interested in healthy dog treats in Metro Areas of USA, and their overall states presidential political leanings.

In the case of healthy dog treats, much of what we do on our website is an education campaign. The reason that this has become necessary is because of mass media mis-information for large corporation financial gain.  If you look at the images that pop up in Google searches for “healthy dog treats”, many of them are wheat based biscuits with many additives. These treats have even less meat than commercial dog food (typically 30% meat at best).  Clearly in this case, the images are based on a financial imperative of the search engine to display images from companies who pays their advertising bills, not what is genuinely healthy.

You will see that our company still ranks for ‘Healthy dog treats’ in the organic results section In Australia (until Google changes the rules again). But there are a also a lot of pretenders around in those search result too. Many of them who have no interest in dog nutrition or the science behind meat based proteins, animal based Omega 3, and natural arthritis management treats (shark cartilage and green lipped mussels).  These are mostly the companies that pay ‘vets’ to flog their wheat based cheap treats at high prices, or don’t bother with any regular original information that they write themselves. 

We stand 100% behind our healthy dog treat products, and pray that one day more than ‘progressive’ people see the light of how meat based dog treats from us can provide their dogs with genuine positive health outcomes. As well as being fun and providing a great NATURAL chew.  

Are you one of these people ? 

PS if you want to know the health benefits and functional benefits of our treats, check out our NUTRITION menu tab, or the condensed list of Nutrition science articles at the bottom of the ABOUT menu page.