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LONDON Wednesday January 27 (Reuters)
- First there was "girl power," now Britain's advertising
gurus have hit upon "pet power."
A British cat food maker is launching
Wednesday what it says is the first TV commercial to go over
the heads of pet owners and speak directly to their feline friends.
The 40-second ad features cat-friendly pictures of fish, mice,
birds and a ball of string set against a soundtrack of meows,
tweets and mice-like squeaks.
Whiskas, the cat food maker,
will also be running a 10-second pre-ad spot to urge owners to
get their cats stationed in front of the TV set, said M&C
Saatchi, the advertising agency that created the $825,000 commercial.
The ad will be shown during one
of Britain's top soap operas when an estimated seven million
cats will be watching. |
The advertisers hope the sight
of their pets glued to the screen will get owners heading for
the shops, the agency said.
"One of the conundrums of
pet food advertising has been that we are advertising to purchasers
who don't consume and consumers who don't purchase," agency
chief Maurice Saatchi said.
Tests conducted with hundreds
of cats have suggested that 60 percent of cats watching should
experience some form of response, the agency said.
"Reactions range from mild
interest, such as looking up or twitching their ears into a listening
posture which was very common in research, to more active responses
-- a few cats even investigated and tapped the TV," a spokesman
said.
Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited. |
