Meaning Of Dog And Pony Show

Other early dog and pony shows included Morris’ Equine and Canine Paradoxes . A “dog and pony show” –Most often used with a negative connotation to describe an elaborate and overblown production. A “dog and pony show” is a colloquial term that generally refers to a presentation or seminar that markets new products or services to potential buyers. In the financial context, it refers to presentations to institutional and retail investors by a company that is issuing securities as an initial public offering or on a secondary basis. The term was originally used in the United States in the late-19th and early-20th centuries to refer to small traveling circuses that toured through small towns and rural areas.

This expression, first recorded in 1857, presumably alluded to a town so small that a single horse would suffice for its transportation needs. ‘One trick pony’ is a common saying in the English language. It means someone has just one area of expertise or skill, so they only have ‘one trick’. It’s usually used as a mild insult as it suggests someone has few talents.

The car dealership had quite the dog and pony show this weekend in an attempt to sell their old inventory. However, the dog and pony show also helps team’s project where and when a player could be drafted. What then transpired might have been one of the biggest dog and pony shows that amounted to nothing. This dog and pony show three months later is a cynical move, implying that those who make such decisions don’t believe Alabama or Auburn fans will show up for a basketball game if there’s no football connection. Join Macmillan Dictionary on Twitter and Facebook for daily word facts, quizzes and language news.

What Does It Mean When Someone Says Get Off Your High Horse?

Our variety and versatility sets us apart from other bands. This is a real dog and pony show if i’ve ever seen one. Pro wrestling is full of dog and pony act story-lines.

New words appear; old ones fall out of use or alter their meanings. World Wide Words tries to record at least a part of this shifting wordscape by featuring new words, word histories, words in the news, and the curiosities of native English speech. The pejorative sense was almost certainly helped along by the implication that participants were like the performing animals at a circus; it’s likely that the idiom putting on dog also had some influence on its popularity. The stripes may also make the zebra appear unattractive to smaller predators. A horse is much faster than a zebra clocking in at a max of just about 55 miles per hour where zebras max out at 40 miles per hour. A small and unimportant place, as in Ours was just a one-horse town until the nuclear plant was built.

What Is An Example Of A Dog And Pony Show In The Military?

Their offspring are typically hardy and have exceptional temperaments, which make them suitable for many equine activities. Add dog and pony show to one of your lists below, or create a new one. 3 Trick Pony is a 100 percent LIVE Cover band that plays a wide variety of songs we all grew up with! The band consists of top notch local musicians that bring a solid mix of music for any type of performance.

An elaborate act of bullshit, generally used to distract attention away from the sheer uselessness of the actual project or act. As an example of good science-and-society policymaking, the history of fluoride may be more of a cautionary tale. Dog and pony show is often used negatively to describe something as being too elaborate or making a big show of something unimportant.

… It also refers to presentations by financial institutions to pitch a new product or service. A “dog and pony show” is a colloquial term that generally refers to a presentation or seminar to market new products or services to potential buyers. A dog and pony show, in the financial context, refers to presentations to institutional and retail investors by executives of a company that is issuing securities as an initial public offering or on a secondary basis. The term is believed to have originated in the late 19th century to describe traveling circuses that featured performing dogs and ponies and toured rural areas across the United States. By the 1960’s, the term “dog and pony show” was used commonly outside of the circus ring as it is today to describe events that had a lot of fanfare with little substance. The name derives from the common use of performing dogs and ponies as the main attractions of the events.

What Is A Dog And Pony Show?

Similarly, if a blanket approach is done to entice as many individuals as possible, this might backfire, as no one party might find the product or service particularly applicable to themselves. Choosing the right audience and tailoring the dog and pony show to them is critical for success. “Dog and pony show” is a colloquial term which has come to mean a highly promoted, often over-staged performance, presentation, or event designed to sway or convince opinion for political, or less often, commercial ends.

“You want straight talk. Let’s get down to business.” I’m delighted to report that he didn’t get the business. Rumor has it, in fact, that the prospects at the end of the day preferred the animals. A dog and pony show, or dog-and-pony show, is an informal phrase used to mean an elaborate presentation or campaign, especially one held to drum up publicity or attention.

But it has gone beyond those “walks of life” to mean almost any presentation. I believe a “dog and pony show” refers to a down-scaled circus — a little show that goes from town to town with literally just a dog and pony. As an ad industry veteran, I too have grown up with this cliche… And I have met a man who once made a new-business presentation that included — you guessed it — a real live dog and pony. When the potential clients settled into their seats, our boy signaled, and a young lady entered the conference room, dragging a Shetland pony and an agitated golden retreiver behind her. Our intrepid presenter then pulled up a chair, and broke the silence.

It dates back to American circus acts that traversed the Mid West during the 19th Century. ‘Having more than one string to one’s bow’ is more picturesque. One could probably find instances of perennial being used in an analogous nounal way. A one-trick is a gimmick player who picks that one champion 100% of the time. Some one-tricks will play other champs if they get banned out, some will dodge if they get banned out, but they will ALWAYS pick the one champ otherwise.

The term is thought to have its origins from the traveling circuses that featured performing dogs and ponies that toured rural areas across the United States. AMERICANIf you call an event such as a presentation a dog and pony show, you mean that it is intended to impress people, often to persuade them to buy something. The most famous was that run by “Professor” Gentry , but many others existed, including those of Sipe & Dolman, the Harper Brothers, Stull & Miller, and the Norris Brothers. They were in truth small circuses, many of them running on a shoestring, with no more than a band and a ringmaster in addition to the animal acts, which did consist only of dogs and ponies. The Gentry operation was bigger than its rivals and around 1894 it had some 40 ponies and 80 dogs in each of two troupes (later it would grow into a full-scale circus). Overtime, the term “Dog and Pony Show” was used dismissively to describe underwhelming traveling acts.

Willy was there with his dog and pony show about water safety. I’m bombarding him and the others with charts, graphs, facts, and figures. The boss responds by dozing off during most of our dog and pony show. Gary went into his standard dog and pony show, trying to sell us on an upgrade to our software.

These “mom and pop” outfits would target irrelevant mid western towns where main stream acts did not perform. There were no Lions, Tigers, or nothing fancy, just a pony and a couple of dogs jumping through hoops and riding around. Smaller meetings arranged by the underwriters are also held in private between the company’s management and select institutional investors and high-net-worth individuals. A dog show is a competitive event in which dogs are judged based on the standards set for their breed. It’s essentially a contest to determine which dog in the show is the most ideal specimen . An elaborate display or performance designed to attract people’s attention.