This video, one in the generally awesome series by the Mayor’s Alliance for NYC’s Animals, doesn’t make me want to kill myself, but it makes me a bit sad.

Is this couple only staying together for the sake of the cat? And who will get custody when they decide to call it quits? Here’s what I fear could be the outcome, though not in as dramatic a fashion.

13 thoughts on “Pet Adoption Videos That Don’t Make Me Want to Kill Myself, #10”

  1. There actually was a recent court case here over custody of a dog… I think the judge gave them joint custody, one week with him, one with her. We don’t put our kids up for adoption when couples split; why should a pet go to a shelter???

    1. Lots of people are idiots and when there’s a breakup, the animal suffers. Say one member of a couple that breaks up gets custody of the cat, then meets someone who’s allergic to cats or just hates them. Rather than contact the ex, the cat goes to the shelter.

  2. I think these pet adoption videos are like the Super Bowl videos. They’re made to show off the cleverness of the ad agency more than they are to affect buying (or adopting) behavior.

    Marketing guru Seth Godin talks about how you’re most successful in marketing when you sell people on the story they already believe. I don’t think anyone wants to think their relationship with their cat is more fulfilling than that with their spouse. Or that they’ll come home to find their sweetie in bed with someone else.

    I wonder if the nonprofits running the ads ever do any metrics to see if they’re effective? Or maybe the only idea is to equate shelters with hip and funny ads.

    1. I agree with you about the first narrative, and I was surprised because the Mayor’s Alliance usually creates very clever ads that focus on how appealing the pets are. And it’s for that reason I think the second one works; the focus is on the cat (whose talking is not as offensive as some examples of that “genre”) and the humans are secondary to the central message, that the cat is cool and blameless. We’re not supposed to relate to the fighting couple in any way. It’s more like a French farce.

  3. Doesnt want to kill yourself yes. Makes me sad too, especially the top one closed with a “just get a new one” message, or maybe it is just me. It was funny, have to admit that.

  4. I couldn’t really hear the second one because of all the screaming. I don’t think those people should have guardianship of an animal … the people are too scarey and loud! 😉

    The first one make me laugh. It’s so true that some people talk more lovingly to their dog or cat than to other people. of course, not anyone I know!

    1. Oh, no question that people talk to their pets more lovingly than they talk to humans — guilty! I sometimes forget that I have neighbors who can hear me when I talk to Frankie in my back yard, neighbors who know I live alone with a dog… I don’t think I’ve every called any human “sweetie” or sung goodbye songs to them when I left the house.

  5. well, I’m learning alot from this discussion and pet video reviewing about what to (not) do in advocacy! I wonder how this all could be applied to promoting peace in the middle east…..

    1. I think there are some good Israeli/Arab joint efforts that use humor to promote the message. There was an Israeli short, I seem to recall, that won an Academy Award a few years ago that had a funny, peaceful message; I think it was about a felafel stand. But I suspect that the zealots have no sense of humor, so it’s probably wasted on them.

  6. Both were cleverly done videos. Neither one makes me want to kill myself, but I think I’m in the same boat with Pam on this one. Seth Godin is amazing and I love the way he thinks. I think he would probably say what Pam wrote. I think why I dislike the Shelter Pet videos is because they don’t leave you with a great feeling when you are done watching them and they don’t really bring attention to shelter pets in a positive way. Some of their commercials (especially the radio ads “Lassie!” – Ugh!) are too cheesy. I get the message – shelter pets aren’t in a shelter because they were bad. Very true. I just think we need a new way of presenting shelter pets.

  7. Although I agree that these videos, and some like them, could use some improvement, I think that being clever for the sake of cleverness is fine, because it still draws attention to the animals. The advertisements that make us want to kill ourselves cause the general audience to go to the kitchen for a snack; at least maybe these will be sufficiently engaging to create a subliminal positive message.

  8. I love all the videos you posted here, they are many pets outside he house that really need love and care.

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