Molassine cakes were made with molasses. Eradication of all internal parasites, a claimed benefit of feeding the product, would have been highly unlikely. But the charming slogan that every cake “wags a tail” seems plausible.
A website on the industrial history of Greenwich provides an interesting look at the Molassine Company and its products from 1908 to 1981. The dog food portion of this account is below:
The dog food business of Molassine was based on a hard pink biscuit called VIMS. It was made from ordinary flour with additions of aniseed and colouring. The advertising slogan was ‘Dogs Love Vims’ and some older pet food shops still display the black and yellow adverts – they were permanently affixed to shop windows in the form of a top and side pelmet. Only removal of the whole glass window could remove the advert. Black and white Norman Wisdom films of the 1960s contain Vims dogs food adverts – sometimes as part of a plot.
Other dog food products were STIMO, a collection of broken biscuits in a variety of colours, but predominately pink from the Vims production and also a larger white biscuit called PET BISCUITS. These later biscuits were to be produced for a few years in the 1970s with limited success despite considerable advertising featuring Petula Clark.
Image source: petulaclark.net
This will serve as my somewhat flimsy excuse to insert a link to a sweet version of the Stevie Wonder song “Too Shy to Say” performed by Petula Clark and Rowlf the dog from an episode of “The Muppet Show,” filmed in December 1977 and aired a few months later.
From molasses to muppets and we didn’t even need all six degrees of separation.
YesBiscuit! 