“This Is My Son Rosenberg”

Abstract

This chapter analyzes macro-level evidence found in pet-product advertisements to connect the multispecies family form to specific familial identities, like “parent” and “child,” demonstrating how these new relationships are increasingly reproduced in mainstream American culture. The author argues that advertisers have increasingly designed ads that reflect both pet parent and pet as child in the United States, effectively producing and reproducing the companion animal as “family” with all of its attendant identities. Print ads for products such as dog and cat food and toys, obedience school, adoption, household cleaning products, shoes, and insurance show how advertisers are negotiating companion animals as important family members in American society. In turn, these images provide macro-level reinforcement for micro-level interactions that have gradually developed new meanings for what constitutes “family,” “parent,” and “child.”