When millions of homeless dogs and cats are awaiting adoption across the United States, animal shelters need to get mighty creative to place the pets. Glamour shots of dogs, celebrity endorsements, alarming euthanasia countdowns and waived adoption fees are some common tactics for attracting new pet-parents.
FurKids Animal Rescue in Atlanta didn’t settle for those. It raised the bar, unleashing a delightfully executed video that touts cats like used cars.
It’s not particularly sophisticated. The camera is shaky. The star, an Atlanta-area guy who the Huffington Post reported is “naturally funny,” ad-libs what can only be called dad jokes, rattled off in the style of a used-car salesman, about available cats. They include models without tails, self-cleaning cats and, he says as a gang of kittens bats at him through a glass door, “2016 models” that “are compatible with windows.”
But the overall result is humor, and that’s much needed in the animal rescue world, where pitches – no offense to all the hardworking shelters out there – often border on syrupy.
The video, which was posted online just before Christmas, attracted the attention of users on Reddit, who have helped push its views on YouTube above 1.4 million.
FurKids isn’t the first shelter to hawk kitties like cars. The Calgary Humane Society released an ad in 2015 that promoted older cats as “pre-owned.”
– – –
Video: Official Furkids Kitty Kommercial