Okay, so this first statement may make some of you click past this blog entry and vow never to return again …

… I love cats.

It’s not a “sissy” thing, I love cats. My family’s cat, Tommy, is the undisputed best cat in the world. He’s big (14 pounds), fuzzy, yellow and loves pastrami. He’s no Garfield, but he does look an awful lot like that computer-animated cat that lost his head in the unapproved Internet ad produced by the Ford team at O&M (Ogilvy & Mather).

So, while some people applaud the effort as “edgy” creative work or stealthy viral advertising, there are a number of us who are absolutely turned off. “I’ll probably never buy another Ford,” said one (now former) customer who wrote to me in response to a post on this subject to the Experiential Marketing Forum billboard to which I belong.

Ford was noticeably disturbed by it, too. “We find this unauthorized ad totally unacceptable and reprehensible and deplore the fact that it has been unofficially issued,” Ford spokesman Oscar Suris said.

Well, bully for them. There are skeptics among us who think Ford and O&M probably view any kind of buzz about this ad as a positive. You’ll find a great evaluation on the success/failure of various Internet-oriented, viral marketing efforts at the ClickZ News website.

I, on the other hand, am interested in what makes some of us think this ad is a hilarious attempt at pushing the edge of the envelope and others of us (myself included) to be disgusted. What happened to our poor, orange friend is not all that different than the fate of dozens of cartoon cats for decades. It’s a veritable rogue’s gallery: Sylvester, Tom, Snagglepuss (not sure if he was a cat or Paul Lynde in drag, actually) and more recently Scratchy of “Itchy & Scratchy” fame.

I suppose the difference is in the art form used. The more realistic our depiction of those characters, the more realistic the violence perpetrated against them. The Ford cat’s body dropping over to the side sans head and then falling with a thud to the ground is just too realistic – and not funny at all. It’s just flat-out gory. Scratchy getting blown to bits by a hand grenade or Tom getting his tongue yanked out and tied around a trash can or wall stud on a construction site is drop dead silliness.

Are we being alarmist here? I don’t think so, really. The problem underlying violence perpetrated against overly realistic animatrons is the same one we’re trying to deal with when it comes to restricting video game access for our kids. It makes realistic violence an option worth considering, and for those without the presence of mind to think first, the results can be devastating.

Don’t believe me? Just last week a twenty something was arrested for punting a little dog about thirty-five yards through the air and into a traffic-congested street. He and his friends thought it was hilarious. The neighbors didn’t and had his butt busted by the cops.

It can’t come as much of a surprise, though. What do many guys his age (and older) call those little, yippy dogs?

“Kickin’ dogs.” Think about it.

We’re the guys that make the messages intended to influence buying and social behaviors to the advantage of our clients. We’re also the guys who may – intentionally or not – influence the behavior of our audience towards other people, things or issues.

It’s a responsibility we have to deal with whether we want to or not. Let’s treat it with some respect.

Later.

1010 WINS: “Headless Cat” Ad Backfires on Ford

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