Dog and pony show

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Dog and pony show was a colloquial term 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. The name derives from the typical use of performing dogs and ponies as the main attractions of the events.

Performances were typically held in open-air arenas, such as race tracks or municipal parks, and in localities that were too small or remote to attract bigtop performances. In the latter part of the 20th century, the original meaning of the term has largely been lost. More recently, smaller areas of the mid-western United States have come to know the term as 'horse and pony show'. This term is not widely accepted in other areas of the country.

The term has come to mean any type of presentation or display that is somewhat pathetically contrived or overly intricate, or put on for purposes of gaining approval for a program, policy, etc. It is now often used in business to describe a period immediately prior to the initial public offering of a stock issue when the company's management travels extensively around the country to personally present their business to potential investors and thus attempt to create interest in purchasing shares of the IPO. In advertising the creative pitch is commonly referred to as the "Dog and Pony" show.