ohmidog!

We’re not too wowed by the car, or by this new commercial for it, but seeing a pit bull in a Cadillac ad — even though his appearance is far too brief — is something to celebrate.

We love that a car company like Cadillac is featuring a pit bull in an ad. We only wish it would have featured more of the dog and less of the good-looking, well-dressed hipster guys.

The ad, dubbed “Night Out,” opens with two guys in stylish duds playing baseball at night when a third friend stops by to pick them up in his Cadillac XTS.

Driving along, they come across what appears to be a farmer, or some other old, salty sort in a cap and flannel shirt, standing in the rain, apparently the victim of car trouble, or pick-up truck trouble.

They give him, and his pit bull, a ride.

Then they all go to a diner to eat, apparently leaving the dog in the Cadillac. Inside, they get the urge to do some dancing. The farmer, waitress, and eventually the whole crowd, join in.

Next we see the Cadillac driver heading home by himself as the sun comes up, passing through some unexplainedly scenic rural countryside on his way from the diner to his high-rise apartment.

He stops the car, and gets out to throw something even though the dog is no longer there to chase it.

We’re not sure what happens to the farmer, dog and fashionable friends, but the Cadillac owner returns home to his ritzy apartment building where the doorman asks, “Another big night on the town?”

The ad — unless we’re missing something — doesn’t seem to have the greatest story line. It’s not real easy to follow, and the diner dancing is a little goofy. But they did get one thing right — the dog.

(To see all our “Woof in Advertising” posts, click here)

Credit a family dog in Virginia with finding the evidence that would lead to the arrest of a 20-year-old man on charges of robbery after he lured a car buyer to meet him through an ad on Craigslist.

Derek Shifflett, 20, of Verona, became a suspect in the case after a friend’s dog found the money — $12,000 — hidden under a bed.

Sgt. David Lotts, of the Augusta County Sheriff’s Office, said Shifflett posted a Honda Civic for sale on Craigslist, and made arrangements to meet an interested buyer.

The victim, from a car dealership in Hendersonville, N.C., traveled to Verona Monday afternoon and met with Shifflett, who told him the vehicle was being cleaned and filled with gas.

At one point, authorities say, Shifflett pushed the prospective buyer, a 64-year-old man, snatched an envelope containing $12,000 from his coat pocket, and ran off.

A few hours later, a Verona woman called the sheriff’s office after her dog pulled an envelope full of cash from beneath a bed in her home and began playing with it.

“The dog drug it out,” Lotts told Newsleader.com. “I guess he thought it was a new toy.”

Lotts said the woman’s son is friends with Shifflett. Shifflett turned himself in at the sheriff’s office late Monday night.

Lotts said the ad was fictitious and that Shifflett ” just took a random picture with a cell phone.”

“I figured that money was long gone,” he said.

Here’s the latest ad from Travelers Insurance, which has a long tradition of featuring dogs in its commercials, most often a mixed breed named Chopper.

We loved it when Chopper went to great lengths to find a safe place for his bone. We loved it when Chopper found true love.

In this one, Chopper has a special bone that is the envy of all the neighborhood dogs, and while he seems to be intent on keeping it for himself, and away from the other dogs, he actually has something else in mind.

While Chopper is clearly the star dog in Travelers’ stable, we see much promise in another of the canine actors appearing in this one; namely, the Boston terrier. Check out his smile at the end.

This ad features the song “What I Want This Season” by Orba Squara.

To see all of our “Woof in Advertising” posts, click here.

Wouldn’t you really rather get there in a BMW?

Of course you would, unless “there” happened to be a neutering appointment.

This boxer is eager to hit the road until — thanks to the latest technology — he seems to become aware of the destination, and makes a quick exit.

(To see all our “Woof in Advertising” posts, click here.)

This political ad opens with Bill Stouffer’s wife seemingly extolling the virtues of her husband, a candidate for Missouri secretary of state.

“He’s very loyal and protects those that he serves. He’s always ready to fight for what is right,” she says. “And he’s always hunting for the truth.”

Not until Stouffer thanks her for the compliment does she say, “Oh Bill, you know I’m talking about Duke.”

Duke is the Stouffer’s bloodhound, who often accompanies the two-term Republican state senator on appearances.

Stouffer’s hoping the dog will help him win his upcoming primary on Aug. 7, in which he’ll face off against two other Republicans running for secretary of state.

Stouffer says bringing the dog along on appearances always gets him attention, leading to questions from voters — but most of the questions are about is dog.

Stouffer is from Saline County, the same county where Jim the Wonder Dog lived.

You don’t know Jim the Wonder Dog?

Guess you’ll have to read our next entry. For now, let’s just say he once appeared before the Missouri legislature, and that, were he alive today, he could probably tell us who the winners will be in Missouri’s primary election.

Harried New York subway riders can now stop and play some fetch — throwing digital tennis balls to digital dogs at a digital dog park on the wall of a vacant storefront at the Columbus Circle subway station.

The storefront beneath 57th St. and Eighth Ave. has been transformed into a virtual dog park — with dogs included.

It’s like a Nintendo Wii game, the New York Daily News reports, with a screen that’s 64-feet long and 6-feet high.

It’s all part of a Beneful dog food advertising campaign — but one commuters are finding to their liking.

“This is awesome,” said Zeinabou Banks, 38, as her two pre-schoolers tossed  tennis balls that two digital dogs retrieved. “It’s ingenious.”

Daily News columnist Pete Donohue described it as:

“…  a perfect and unexpected antidote to all the dismal sights in the subway: a woman panhandler sitting on the floor at Grand Central with an infant cradled in her arms; a madman in filthy rags looking like he escaped from a leper colony; a middle-aged man in a suit keeling over and dying of a heart attack on the dirty floor of a crowded No. 4 train; a teen-age mom with a neck tattoo cursing out a crying toddler for acting like a toddler.”

“In the Columbus Circle passageway,” he noted, “the sun shines, birds chirp and the wind rustles the green grass.”

The interactive advertisement is only the second of its kind in the subway system, but more are expected to be showing up underground.

(Photo: Andrew Savulich / New York Daily News)

President Obama has turned to the cutest member of his admistration to raise funds for his  2012 campaign — Bo.

In one Internet ad, the first family’s Portuguese water dog  pops into the frame, with his tongue out, as the words “Join Pet Lovers for Obama” appear.

The Bo Obama Internet ad links to a sign-up page, giving readers an opportunity to donate to the campaign.

According to the Washington Post, Bo may be the first “first dog” to emerge as a central player in a presidential re-election campaign.

In 2004, George W. Bush’s campaign made a tongue-in-cheek video featuring Barney, Bush’s Scottish terrier, advising the Republican National Convention  on how to attract the “canine vote.”

But Bo’s appearances – coinciding with his third anniversary as a member of the Obama family (it’s Saturday) — are hoped to prove more viral and hard hitting.

They also seem to be an attempt to capitalize on the Crate-gate controversy dogging Mitt Romney, who transported his Irish setter Seamus in a crate atop the family station wagon for a 12-hour trip to Canada in the 1980s.

Republicans have fired back, pointing out that Obama — as he admits in his 2004 autobiography – ate dog meat as a child in Indonesia.

Here’s an ad we doubt would have flown during the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. In fact, it never saw the light of day anywhere (except online), having been banned from appearing during the 2006 Super Bowl.

In the ad, for Bud Light, an upscale dog owner, sweater draped over his shoulders, is showing off his purebred border collie. Then he asks the mutt owner he is talking to, “What can your dog do?”

To see the painful answer, watch the video.

Truth in advertising? It’s a lot like honor among thieves. Society stopped expecting either long ago.

Still, it’s interesting to see how Skechers ad-makers gave an apparent facelift to Tucson Greyhound Park, the site of their “Mr. Quiggly” ad, in which a French bulldog outraces a group of greyhounds thanks to his Skecher’s athletic shoes.

The pictures to the left come from Grey2KUSA, the anti-racing group that sponsored a boycott of the ad, which aired during the Super Bowl.

I’m not sure if the improvements were digital or real, and, if real, whether they were temporary or permanent, but they raise the question: If the track is something to be proud of, as some backers of greyhound racing maintain, why did it need a cosmetic makeover?

Of course, the purpose of the ad was to sell sneakers, not expose the so-called sport’s seamy underbelly. But sprucing the place up beforehand does lend some credence to Grey2KUSA’s concerns that the ad would glorify greyhound racing.

The organization launched a boycott of Skechers before the ad aired and urged its backers to send their shoes back to the company. More than 122,000 people signed its online petition asking the company not to air the ad.

While that wasn’t achieved, Grey2KUSA says the company did make some changes to the ad, including removing “Tucson Greyhound Park” from the footage and digitally replacing it with a fictitious name, “Rexford Downs.”

In addition to altering the sign, the company also spruced up the grounds, the organization says, “bringing in green shrubbery, flowers and other improvements to make this otherwise dilapidated track look attractive.”

“It is not known if the greyhound racing ad will continue to air, but if it does, we ask you to continue boycotting Skechers,” Grey2KUSA informed its members this week.

According to Grey2K, dog racing continues in seven states, and three of those — Arizona, Iowa and Florida — have bills pending in their legislatures to ban it.

When is a funny Super Bowl ad not very funny?

When it promotes animal cruelty.

While they haven’t seen the ad in question, an organization that works to ban greyhound racing says that ‘s what the athletic shoe company, Skechers – intentionally or not — is doing.

As we reported a couple of days ago, Skechers, having concluded its contract with Kim Kardashian, has turned to a dog to advertise it’s shoes, and its planned Super Bowl ad features a French bulldog — in Skechers, of course – competing against greyhounds in a race.

The ad was filmed at Tucson Greyhound Park, which the anti-dog racing organization GREY2K USA says is notorious for treating greyhounds poorly. Greyhounds are kept in small cages which are barely large enough for them to stand or turn around, fed diseased meat, and get injured at a clip of nearly once a day.  According to the Arizona Department of Racing, nearly 1,000 greyhound injuries occurred at the park between January 2007 and November 2009.

Grey2KUSA says it contacted Skechers after learning the ad had been filmed, aksing that the “misguided promotion” be canceled. It started a petition urging Skechers to pull the ad at Change.org, and it had nearly 80,000 signatures as of the end of this week.

Grey2K is calling for a boycott of Skechers, and is urging its membership and others to write emails to those involved with the ad:

•Skechers President Michael Greenburg at michaelg@skechers.com
•Skechers Vice President of Media Gary Martin at gpmedia@aol.com
•Mark Cuban at mcuban@hd.net (Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, is briefly featured in the ad.)
•NBC at nbcuniversalviewerfeedback@nbcuni.com.

And the organization is also running a contest for the best protest photos (such as the one of the greyhound atop this post). The top three entries will win a Grey2KUSA cap.

Protests have been planned at Skechers outlets, and, on Jan. 28, at Tucson Greyhound Park.

Skechers marketing chief Leonard Armato says there are no plans to pull the ad — scheduled to be shown during the Super Bowl Feb. 5. He said the ad doesn’t condone animal cruelty, and pointed out that it has not been seen by any of those who are protesting.

“That the ad is running during the most heavily watched sporting event of the year suggests that greyhound racing is a sport. It is not,” said Grey2K President Christine Dorchak. “It is greyhound cruelty.”