1 week Ago
DEAR PET TALK: Do cats advertise products? Nipper the terrier was the spokesdog for Victrola record players when they started. Cats advertise cat food, of course, but do they advertise anything else? -Ailurophile DEAR AILUROPHILE: I share your interest in this question, which is a topic I’ve mused upon a lot. My brother, bass player Hal Cragin favors black t-shirts with the Eveready black cat logo.
Eveready includes the number “9” on their black cat image to imply that, like cats, their batteries also have nine lives. Fitchburg Historical Society has an excellent and wide-ranging array of local advertisements. Farnsworth Brothers Clothiers on Main Street used a cat in a late 19th ad, and once I searched the internet, I found vintage ads showing cats advertising everything from yeast, to bitters, to baking powder (which actually makes sense, because every cat “makes biscuits” when they knead your lap!).
In 1948, Harry Winston company went against superstition and posed a black cat with a beautiful diamond pendant. More recently, EDS.com, a software company created the brilliant “cat herding” commercial during the 2006 Super Bowl.
But it doesn’t stop there – and globally, cats are definitely “spokes-animals” for products. In Finland, black cats advertise “Salmiac,” a licorice which is sweet, black, and salty; Norvic, a variety of British electric blanket; and in France, a campaign for Rolex back in mid-century. A French company which manufactured automobile headlamps used a black cat as an emblem: “cats see in the dark, and so can you while you’re driving!” There is another famous French ad, showing an elongated black cat which advertises “Tournee du chat noir” but where advertisers adore cats for messaging is faraway Japan.
Famous, of course, for their cat cafes, where you can enjoy a cup of tea and a visit with a furry friend. Japanese cat ads are hilarious – just go to your search engine and type in three words: cat, advertising, Japan. For those of you who live with cats – what could your cat advertise? Cats can advertise blankets, because they’re warm, and soap, because they’re constantly cleaning parts of their bodies.
The most surprising promotion I found was for “Black Cat Cigarettes” a British brand. And no, the kitty wasn’t smoking! Sally Cragin is the director of Be PAWSitive: Therapy Pets and Community Education. Email questions to: bepawsitive01420@gmail.
com..
