Saturday, February 27, 2010

Friskies pushes the envelope with a great ad

I've always been intrigued by pet food commercials. It's a great marketing challenge because they aren't targeted at the actual consumers. These ads normally take one of a few common angles:

~A healthier product for a caring pet owner is a great angle because it reminds pet owners of their responsibilities as a pet owner and probably sells a lot of pet food.

~A funny ad with pets running amok in the house and getting excited about the product is also cool because kids like it and it's memorable. I remember convincing my mom to buy certain pet foods in my childhood because the ads where so cool

~A nostalgic moment that reminds us of just how much we love that critter is cool and all but doesn't really promote the brand.

~A demonstration of the high quality of the food is the worst thing one earth. Close up shots of cat food is never going to look appetizing to pet owners. These ads are pretentious, disgusting and pointless.

All in all, there tends to be a lot of wasted opportunity in pet food ads. Creative agencies should have license to just go nuts sometimes on these. People buy pets to have fun and the ads should reflect that. After all, you aren't selling pacemakers. So you can imagine my excitement to see this ad for Friskies made by AvrettFreeGinsberg. It's like the folks at Friskies chilled out and said, "Do what you want. Just make it fun, interesting and memorable." The result is one of the trippiest ads to come out in a minute. I could watch this again and again.


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