How I and Love and You Made Pets Welcome at the Family Dinner Table
I and love and you launched "Pets are People Too – Family Dinner" in June 2019, a single-film campaign created by Boulder-based agency Fact & Fiction that positions the brand's natural pet food as a natural fit at the family table, reframing how pet owners in the United States think about feeding their dogs and cats.
The campaign's central premise is straightforward and deliberately provocative. Pets belong at the family dinner table not as a novelty but as full participants in household life, and the food they eat should reflect that standing. This philosophy aligns directly with I and love and you's founding identity as an all-natural pet food brand, which, according to factandfiction.com, was built on the conviction that companion animals deserve the same quality of ingredients their human families enjoy. The film format, comprising a single media asset, concentrates that message into one cohesive narrative moment rather than fragmenting it across a broader campaign architecture.
In the United States, the campaign arrived at a moment when the humanisation of pets had moved well beyond a niche cultural attitude and into mainstream consumer behaviour. I and love and you, which received a growth investment from L Catterton that closed on April 3, 2017, according to lcatterton.com, had by 2019 established itself as a challenger brand in the premium natural segment of the US pet food market. "Pets are People Too" gave that challenger positioning a vivid, emotionally resonant creative expression. The campaign targets pet parents — a consumer identity the brand explicitly cultivates — rather than generic pet owners, framing the act of purchasing premium dog food as an extension of family values rather than a functional household chore. Clapboard Score: 59/100.
I and love and you built "Pets are People Too" on the insight that American pet owners increasingly regard their animals as family members rather than dependents. This is not a soft cultural observation — it is a commercial reality that reshapes purchasing behaviour across the US pet food and broader pets industry. According to giiresearch.com, the global pet food market was estimated at approximately US $51.2 billion in 2019, with growth projected at more than seven percent compound annual growth rate through 2024, driven in significant part by premiumisation and humanisation trends concentrated in markets including the United States.
Within that landscape, I and love and you competes directly against category giants whose scale dwarfs its own. Mars Petcare held the number-one global market share position in 2019 at 19.2 percent, according to nydailyrecord.com, with major brands including Pedigree, Whiskas, Royal Canin, Iams, and Nutro spanning both mass-market and premium tiers. Nestlé Purina PetCare represented the second major incumbent force in the United States, with a portfolio that similarly spans commodity and premium segments. Against these competitors, I and love and you cannot compete on distribution scale or media spend. Its strategic advantage lies in authenticity of positioning — the brand was co-founded by Brendan Synnott, who, according to factandfiction.com, invested approximately three and a half million dollars to help launch it, and whose consumer-brand background shaped a distinctly values-led go-to-market approach.
The "Family Dinner" execution works strategically because it does not argue for product superiority through ingredient claims or nutritional data. Instead it argues for a category of relationship — between pet and person — that the brand's entire product range is designed to honour. In the United States, where the emotional bond between pet owners and their animals continues to intensify across demographic groups, that relational argument carries persuasive weight that functional messaging cannot replicate.
Director Elizabeth Orne of The Famous Group helmed "Pets are People Too – Family Dinner," bringing a sensibility to the film that balances warmth with restraint. The production was shot inside an early-1900s home, according to factandfiction.com, a location choice that roots the campaign's emotional premise in a setting immediately legible to American audiences as the archetypal family home — lived-in, multi-generational, and genuinely domestic rather than aspirationally styled.
Production took place during Denver's 2019 Bomb Cyclone weather event, according to factandfiction.com, a logistical challenge that the crew navigated without apparent compromise to the final film. Director of photography Brian Lannin's work reflects this grounded approach: the cinematography serves the storytelling rather than advertising the production's own effort. Production Designer Susan Petersen's set work reinforces the period warmth of the location, and the overall visual register sits closer to independent film than to conventional pet food advertising, which typically relies on high-saturation close-ups of product or animals in isolation.
The creative direction was led by Rob Lewis and Brock Johnson, with Fact & Fiction partners Kyle Taylor and Luke Frydenger overseeing the project alongside Account Director Travis Reeb. Executive Producer and Producer Christian Silberbaurer managed production alongside Production Manager Ellyn Church and Production Coordinator Colin Stein. Camera work on the ground was handled by First Assistant Camera Jacob Glazier and Second Assistant Camera and DIT Boston Heath. The full production apparatus reflects a considered investment in craft for what is, structurally, a single-asset film campaign. According to factandfiction.com, the campaign was supplemented by short online videos featuring pet parents, extending the core narrative into more personal, testimonial territory while the primary thirty-second spot carried the campaign's emotional centrepiece.
No verified performance data for "Pets are People Too – Family Dinner" is publicly available. No media spend, paid-channel distribution data, or brand-lift metrics have been disclosed for this campaign. What the public record does confirm is industry recognition across three separate award bodies, with award information sourced from a LinkedIn profile, as noted by clapboard.com, rather than official award-database records.
The campaign received a One Show 2020 Shortlist, a Silver Addy Award at the American Advertising Awards 2020, and a win at the Ad Club Colorado Fifty Awards 2020, according to clapboard.com. Taken together, these recognitions — spanning a national creative competition, a regional industry body, and a specialist advertising awards programme — suggest the film was regarded by peer evaluators as a credible and well-crafted piece of work rather than merely a competent category entry.
Structurally, the campaign's effectiveness case rests on strategic coherence rather than measurable reach. A single-film format demands that every creative decision earn its place, and the combination of a culturally resonant insight — pets as family members in the United States — with a genuinely distinctive production approach gives the work a durability that campaigns built around media weight alone rarely achieve. For a challenger brand in the US pets industry operating against Mars Petcare and Nestlé Purina PetCare, the ability to generate award-circuit visibility from a single asset represents a meaningful return on creative investment, even in the absence of disclosed commercial outcomes.
"Pets are People Too – Family Dinner" is a 2019 film campaign created by Fact & Fiction for I and love and you. Released in June 2019 in the United States, it positions the brand's natural pet food within the emotional context of family life, arguing that pets deserve the same quality of care as any family member at the dinner table.
Elizabeth Orne of The Famous Group directed "Pets are People Too – Family Dinner." She worked alongside Director of Photography Brian Lannin and Creative Directors Rob Lewis and Brock Johnson at Fact & Fiction. The film was shot in an early-1900s home in Denver during the city's 2019 Bomb Cyclone weather event, according to factandfiction.com.
The campaign received three award recognitions: a One Show 2020 Shortlist, a Silver Addy Award at the American Advertising Awards 2020, and a win at the Ad Club Colorado Fifty Awards 2020. Award information was sourced from a LinkedIn profile, as noted by clapboard.com, with no official award-database records independently confirmed.
Fact & Fiction, a Boulder, United States-based agency, created "Pets are People Too – Family Dinner" for I and love and you. Partners Kyle Taylor and Luke Frydenger led the engagement alongside Account Director Travis Reeb and Creative Directors Rob Lewis and Brock Johnson, with Executive Producer Christian Silberbaurer overseeing production, according to clapboard.com.
I and love and you uses the "Pets are People Too" campaign to compete on emotional positioning rather than scale. Against Mars Petcare, which held 19.2 percent global market share in 2019 according to nydailyrecord.com, and Nestlé Purina PetCare, the brand targets pet parents in the United States who view their animals as family members deserving premium natural food.
The Clapboard Score for "Pets are People Too – Family Dinner" is 59 out of 100. This score reflects the campaign's creative coherence and award recognition across three industry bodies, balanced against its single-asset format and the absence of publicly available performance or effectiveness data for the United States market.
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