You are now entering Ad Space, a realm of commercials, brought before us so we might examine how they work, and discuss why we both love and hate them so. So it is written …

The Product:
Milk-Bone Cat Crackers

The Promotion:

The Pitch:
“A bird is a bird, a dog is a dog, and a cat … is a person.”

I can’t quite decide what this commercial’s intent is.

On the one hand, this might just be the standard advertising gimmick where the folks in the commercial are fanatically obsessed with the product. Since the product in question is something you buy for your cat(s), naturally that means making this spokeslady fanatically obsessed with their feline companions. In that respect, it’s no different from a thousand other ads, including some that take the obsession much farther, like Nintendo ruining an artist’s career, or Ladder offering such good life insurance, the beneficiaries start plotting murder.

But I can’t help thinking there was someone at the ad agency who went, “We need to appeal to the ‘crazy cat lady’ demographic. Sure, they’re a very small part of the population, but if we can win over one lonely old lady who keeps a whole … uh …

“What do you call a group of cats, anyway? It can’t be a herd – there’s a whole expression about herding cats not being a thing. Let me google it … wait, sorry, it’s the 60’s. Let me funk & wagnalls it …

“… Clowder. A group of cats is a called a ‘clowder’ … or, if the cats aren’t friends, a ‘glaring’. Huh.

“Anyway, if we can win over one lonely old lady who keeps a whole clowder of cats, that’ll net us as many sales as winning over a dozen regular cat owners. So let’s really lean into the obsessive cat fancier vibe, and appeal to the folks who collect cats like they’re Pokémon … wait, sorry, still the 60’s. Collect cats like they’re … sea monkeys, I guess?”