Really? That’s the same cat? Then I have a bridge I’d like to sell you
I’m sure most of you receive those annoying advertisements that are rolled into a cylinder apropo of smacking a dog in the snout, wrapped in a plastic bag and then tied with another plastic bag. Someone carries those tubes and throws them at the porch of every house up and down my street.
They’re very annoying and every spring after the snow thaws, I find three to five plastic bags filled with advertisements that were buried under the snow.
I throw away the ones found after the thaw, but they arrive semi-weekly on my lawn and occasionally I open one up.
When I opened the ads this weekend I had quite a surprise waiting for me.
Amid the coupons for salad dressing and OTC acid reflux medications there stood one ad that would not be refused. In fact it was the center spread.
It was an ad for diet pet food. But wait, it wasn’t the product that caught my eye, it was the advertising concept that grabbed me.
I really can’t tell you which pet food brand it was, but that’s not important. What’s important is the story board, the concept of the ad. The idea was to show before and after shots of a tabby cat and a golden retriever to illustrate the benefits of the diet food.
Humans do it with great advertising success, why not house pets?
The dog’s before picture was taken in April of 2006 and it is more realistic than the cat’s before photo.
The dog’s photo is reminiscent of human before pictures, where the person has been caught in an action shot looking up and away from his or her sandwich. It’s not flattering, but it is realistic.
And the after dog does look fit and trim but his fur looks brighter and darker orange than the before dog. But if pressed I’d suspend my disbelief and agree that somehow this is the same dog.
But not really, she whispered behind the back of her hand.
Onto the feline. I’m going to tell you right now that I call bullshit on that one.
The before photo is of a fat cat staring at the camera, disgusted with itself. The cat’s after picture is much larger and shows the cat actually walking out of the picture frame. I suppose this means the cat has come to life and has energy now that it’s eaten the food.
I’ll admit the cats look alike, but it’s not the same cat.
First the ludicrous.
There’s no way someone took a before picture of the cat — Angel, according to the caption — back in August 2007.
The background on the before picture is solid red; it’s not a candid shot. I do know people who have taken their pets to Sears to get a portrait so technically it’s possible that the art director owns that cat and had a before picture.
The after picture shows a similar cat upright and walking, presumably taken in the first quarter of 2009. That cat also has a furry face.
Who’s to say that cat does not photograph well when sitting down? Fluff that full face up and push its ass forward so the cat’s shoulders and legs are bunched up around its face and you might get the same image as the before picture.
Now the realistic.
The after cat’s fur is a darker brown, the before cat’s fur has a silvery hue. But the main discrepancy is that the before cat has a prominent white patch of fur under its chin covering a large part of its chest. The after cat does not.
It’s possible that the after cat felt sleek and sexy and decided to dye its fur to attract some other kitty cats in the process. Maybe the motivation had nothing to do with passion. Perhaps the cat was spayed or neutered and it just wanted to feel good about itself after losing a dress size or two.
I don’t begrudge the cat a boost in self esteem. But it’s not the same cat. I’m going to go so far as to say they don’t even hail from the same litter.
I’ll admit begrudgingly that the concept is unusual and garnered my attention. But if you’re going to attempt to sell me diet pet food, you better pay close attention to the details, jack.
hey cg, how are ya girlfriend?
I was looking at the same white patch on the cat and thinking that fat one has more white. Then i thought, well maybe the cat also had surgery after losing all that weight to get rid of the excess skin.
Diet food for animals? I really wish I had a store for people who buy crazy things like this. I’d be rich!
Doing well, Natural. I see you have your place in the front of the line.
You and I need to go in business together, we’ll open that store and make a killing.
that’s great to know.
yes ma’am and i need to show some restraint, i will, tomorrow. maybe. but dang, you seemed to be ahead of schedule this morning, imagine my surprise. i was just going to hang out and talk to jeeves, move some furniture around, but the doors were open when i got here so i had to say hello.
we do need an online store. you could write people into a trance about our products and i’ll rake in the dough.
You are quite the astute reader, Natural. Yes I was ahead of schedule today. Damn, you are good.
Although it would have been nice to walk into a new furniture arrangement. Maybe tomorrow.
Whoa, whoa, whoa gingah.
I’m doing the writing and YOU’RE raking in the dough?
Sum ting wong, here missy.
I’m lol’ing at the thought that cats have self esteem. I can’t imagine cat, somehow, having anything other than the highest of self esteems. :lol:
I guess they figure that people daft enough to buy diet pet food are so daft that they wouldn’t notice that it’s two different animals.
Oh I like that word daft. I’m going to have to throw that into my arsenal of British terminology. So far I have posh, well done and bloody. Though I don’t use bloody often because I think my kids might take it literally.
And I sound like a poser when I say it.
Yeah, cats are pretty arrogant, I think. I’ve seen some stray cats in our neighborhood walking with heads held high even though they might have a paunch sashaying side to side as they saunter down the street.
The lengths some go to trying to sell a product.
I will admit, I think the concept is new and novel. But I still think it’s crazy.
Hey, I was so excited to see those pictures. I love calling shenanigans on a company. I googled to find the product and I did. Hill’s Pet Nutrition! Then, I saw the same cat you post above. Great!, I thought. Now I can send them a nasty email :) Then I saw the story of that cat….
http://www.feedingisbelieving.com/believe/transformationStories.jsp
Um…it actually IS the same cat. Damn.
Steve, way to go on the legwork. I did watch the video and saw the pictures of the cat.
I stand firm on calling Bull. Shit. Ola. On that cat.
I do not buy it. I do believe that cat gained weight while they were on their honeymoon. And I do believe that cat ate the regular food in the bowl before it had to resort to the shitty diet food.
But I will not believe it’s the same cat.
I do admire your detective skills on this one, though.
Hilarious post. I always get a kick out of those before/after photos. Somehow, they always seem to have better lighting available for the “after” shot.
I have an even better way for people to get their pets to lose weight: feed them less food! It’s not like they can get up and fix themselves a sandwich, right?
Thanks strugglingwriter! Yeah, the same goes for human before and afters — somehow the before picture is far away and grainy and the after is crisp and clear.
Definitely the animals can’t make a meal but I had a chubby cat that actually jumped on the counters and ate my muffins or cake if only covered in saran wrap. Yes, I started putting them in the fridge.
The other issue with that is the incessant meowing when the cat is hungry. I hear you though, control the pet’s portions and get a smaller pet.
I totally know about the food bandit cats. We had one that used to do that too. I also feel ya on the incessant meowing. I still don’t think diet kitty food will help. What you need is Kitty Yoga.
I wonder if anyone has come up with kitty muzzles yet. Although a muzzle still allows for growling, right?
I can totally picture trying to make my cat do the lotus position. And I can also picture the blood streaming down my hands from all of the clawing.
He he he. We had a cat that was pretty nasty with the clawing. You had to pet her a certain way or you would end up bloodied. She used to walk on the couch behind my friends and they would all cringe in fear. Man, I miss that cat.
I think you gotta appreciate a cat with boundaries — one that is not taking shet from anyone.
I decide how your pet me, mofo. I will train you.
I guess it’s like Dr. Phil always says, “You have to train people how to treat you.” I suppose that philosophy crosses species, too.
Yeah, I watched the video too — and there’s no way they took an after photo of the same cat. Where’s all the white on her?? Besides, you don’t need “diet” cat food. Just feeding the cat less food and encouraging more activity should work wonders.
I have a fat cat, and we tried all the diet foods to get her to lose weight because I was tired of getting yelled at by the vet. My other cat is just a tiny bit pudgy from lack of exercise, but Karla is seriously overweight. So we switched her to diet food and light food and whatever else, but she never lost the weight. We switched both cats to the special food because we were told that if we gave Storm the regular food, that Karla would just ignore her diet food and go for Storm’s regular food. She never did lose any weight. And how I know that I can’t do a whole lot about it is when we feed the cats, Karla eats a few bites and then moves on while Storm finishes her portion when he’s done with his. Yet Storm’s a fairly slim cat and Karla is fat. I guess she’s just big-boned.
Clive was the same way. We had two cats one was slim and really active, she loved to jump and play; Clive was not as active and wouldn’t really jump to play with those cat toys.
And like you said, the one cat ate some of the food and then the other one ate his food plus her left overs. It’s really hard with two cats.
Unless your cat is 50-70% overweight, which I can’t imagine, I don’t see how some extra pounds are going to significantly impact the length of her life.
It’s hard enough watching my own calories I sure as hell wouldn’t want to watch my cat’s calories also.
Next thing you find will be a spa in your neighborhood where your pets can work with personal trainers.
I know you’re joking, but seriously there is a place nearby called Pet Ritz that is basically a hotel for your cat or dog when you go away. Un-f*cking-believable, I say.
I truly cannot believe businesses like this have clientele.
I stand corrected, it’s a “resort” for your pet. And I kid you not when I say these are a few of the amenities:
Special Wellness Programs
* Overall Health
* Diet (!!)
* Behavior Problem Solving
http://www.petritzamerica.com/
One of my parent’s cats has gotten bigger in her later years, but I couldn’t imagine feeding her diet food, just less sneaked sandwich meat from my mother. People have (had?) too much money to waste on their pets.
Amen, sister. As I mentioned to Poolagirl, how can this economy support that type of business? It’s mind-boggling to me.
People do have too much money. Can you imagine going back in time to the early 1900s and telling someone one day there with be a spa/hotel for dogs and cats?
I always think those dieting before and after pictures are suspect. There is one right now that I think is running on adsense, the guy looks like he weighed 400 pounds before and after he’s got abs more chiseled than Matthew McConaughey. If you lose that much weight, I don’t care how much you lift weights, you’re not going to have a chest that looks like the photo.
How long before they have nutri-system for pets?
I totally agree. I’ve seen enough weight loss shows on Discovery Health to know when you lose a huge amount of weight like that your skin becomes too large and sags, somewhat like an apron.
Frequently those people end up having surgery to remove the excess skin. No chance the dude in the picture you mentioned has chiseled abs without surgical intervention.
Lola made the exact point I was going to make. I don’t think you can lose more than 50 pounds and not have some excess skin. I always think those before and after pictures are total nonsense.
I would also like for someone at the pet diet food company to explain why the cat is now missing the huge patch of white. You know what that before and after shot says to me CG? “We the people of XYZ pet diet food think the American public is so STUPID that they will fall for this.” Sad thing is, someone probably won’t notice and buy the stuff.
It is surprising to me that the after photo (or the before photo) wasn’t edited/photoshopped to match up.
I always imagine the pitch from the advertising agency to the company. Someone at Hill’s Pet Nutrition approved that ad. Someone signed off on it and said, “Yeah. That’s what we’re going for.”
It’s just interesting to me that someone somewhere has approved every ad out there. Even the foolish ones.
“push its ass forward so the cat’s shoulders and legs are bunched up around its face”
I’m practically in tears laughing at that. Can’t stop giggling.
I saw the same ad over the weekend and had the same suspicion. The white bib on kitty is particularly suspect. And IF that’s the same dog, then I’d say they switched the before and after tags. The after shot is the dog as a young adult; the before is a mature adult. That would account for the lighter coloring, as some dogs get more white hair with age, just like their humans.
Hey KarmaCat! How-deee!
I wondered if anyone else saw that ad. It literally stopped me in my tracks. I was flipping through the circular as I was walking to the sink in the kitchen and I had to stop to really study what I was seeing.
It’s crazy.
I’m glad you enjoyed that image. Just between you and me, I liked that one too, and got a little chuckle out of it after I proofed my post.
I’m not a dog aficionado but your explanation makes sense to me. I might have to go back to the site to watch Brinkley’s story.
Here is the ad I was talking about
http://www.gabrielmethod.com/weightloss?gclid=CO3wjtq-o5oCFQ_yDAodUmOA9w
The more I look at it (I’ve seen the ad on a ton of blogs in the last few days), the more it looks photoshopped.
Okay, I have to post the photo. Thanks for the link, by the way.
I must post the photo because there is no way in hell the picture of the body on the right is the body on the left.
I will grudgingly admit that maybe a skilled surgeon might have been able to craft a crazy scar just under his waist line, but I have a really hard time believing that. I will buy that there’s a look alike or maybe that second guy is a distant relative of the first guy.
But no chance I’m buying that story as real. No way.
And that’s a fantastic way to illustrate the saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words.”
This is a good one, LOL.
I don’t even look at junk mail. But maybe I should if it will give me a blog topic! ;-)
The minute I opened the ad I truly said out loud to Mr. C, “This advertisement just wrote tomorrow’s post.”
Some stuff just writes itself. It’s amazing to me.
I can’t stop laughing at your outrage over this ad. This is something that would really bother me, too.
And yeah, those pet food people are filthy liars.
I’m glad you enjoyed my diatribe. Every so often I have to speak my mind :) Seriously, though, it is amazing to me the lengths advertisers will go to sell stuff. Particularly in this economic environment.
However, we the pet buying consumer do not have to fall prey to the lure of thinner feline thighs and flatter canine abs.
I love that tv diet food commercial where the sports jock dj girl has her before picture… in a TENT. A frapping TENT with 9,000 folds where all you can see are her danged ankles.
I’m guessing she lost 4 pounds of fat and did a few extra crunches to get the six-pack abs. And that the food had NOTHING to do with it.
Also I loved Max from Dancing with the Stars, who commented on Marie Osmond passing out (she was on that stupid food then, too): “I wish these women would eat some damn food so they could dance. This is about performance, not weight loss.” That’s a paraphrase. Except for the first sentence, which is pretty much a quote.
Surely there’s some way you can prosecute these people for dropping litter on your private property? That is so annoying, getting spammed like that.
I love that — dropping litter. Oh wait! That was an unintended pun! I just realized that. I took it like they were dropping (cat) shet — the flyers — on my kitty litter — my lawn. How funny!
I think there is no way to stop the madness. Unfortunately. Sometimes, when I see them walking I by I will tell them, “Hey, I don’t want that. Yes, just keep it in your bag and send it to the next house. Thank you.” But usually I’m not here when they throw it on the lawn.
You have a High Five from me HERE
Oh Angelika, you really are too good to me! Many thanks!