For months there has been excitement among the cat cognoscenti about the Catterbox, described in a viral video as "the world's first talking cat collar."
Made by a science outfit called Temptations Lab, the collar was said to record your cat's utterances, translate them into human words and say them aloud. You could pick a voice for your cat (Frenchman? Baritone Aussie?) via a smartphone app.
Scientists from Temptations Lab said digital sensors were used to analyze cat noises and translate them into human voices. The collars, in pretty colors, were made via 3D printing, the video said.
Demand was huge. Cat owners clamored for the price and a website where they could buy it. But did the gadget really exist?
The coy answer is, yes – and no. The Catterbox videos were commercials for Mars Petcare's Temptations cat treats, some of the many ads made over the last 3 1/2 years by a London ad agency named Adam & Eve/DDB. The agency has won a fistful of industry awards in recent years, not only for its work on the Mars account but also for efforts on behalf of H&M;, Skittles and the British department store chain John Lewis, among many others.
Please tell me it's true @DrEKirkeOstm #catterbox https://t.co/1gzwTj6YpD
— Tony Kirke-Reynolds (@TonyKirkeReynol) October 25, 2016
And while some people in the vast world of feline-focused cyberspace labelled the Catterbox a "fake product", it really does exist – you just can't buy it. About 50 of them were made as prototypes and distributed in New Zealand (where the Temptations treats are known as Dreamies).
"The response was overwhelming," said Richard Brim, chief creative officer for Adam & Eve/DDB. "People thought it was absolutely nuts and brilliant, and some people thought it was absolutely insane, but that's what we wanted to achieve."
The agency's work for Temptations has focused on the theme of "fun times with your cat," said Brim (who is allergic). The commercials, he added, are meant to show off "the true nature of cats – not the Hallmark cats, the fluffy kittens," but rather what cat owners know.
"Cats are sort of slightly vindictive," he said, "and they march to their own beat."
These qualities manifested themselves in another popular commercial for Temptations, made for the 2016 holiday season. In it, 22 cats are released through trapdoors into a circular room where an elaborate holiday scene has been set up, and given latitude to trash the place. They scamper off through the trapdoors when Temptations treats are offered.
Brim said the commercial was an example of how his agency tried to use "real" cat behavior to its advantage. "If you put a Christmas tree up, they see it as one great big scratching post," he said. "We said, 'Let's put a load of cats in a studio, and let's film it.' Those are ads made by cats."
Some of the agency's ideas come from the social posts of Temptations customers, Brim said.
"On Christmas, they were posting photos of these obliterated packs, and we were like, 'This is gold,'" Brim said.
For the Catterbox campaign, Adam & Eve/DDB commissioned Acne, a technology research and design firm, to create a real cat collar – one that was not bothersome to the cat – that would detect purrs and meows and interpret them as bold statements like "I'm hungry" and "I love you."
"We got very scientific with it," said Ben Clark, managing director in the London office of Acne, which is based in Sweden.
For six months, researchers at the company watched cats make noises while in different moods. Then they used Siri-style voice recognition software to translate the noises into different English phrases, and miniaturized the hardware to fit into a stylish-looking collar.
"There are various different tones and responses that the cat gives, which then tell the voice recognition software in the unit, 'OK, that's No.3, that's happy cat"," Clark explained. "Then it spits out No.3 to the app, then the app says, 'I'm happy'."
Craig Neely, vice president of marketing for Mars Petcare in the United States, called the agency's work for his brands a "breakthrough," saying, "I just encourage Adam & Eve to let it rip, and that's been a pretty effective approach."
Other spots have included "Treat Them Too", a holiday 2016 ad that used the 1980s song Don't You (Forget About Me) to encourage cat owners to pick up a treat for their cat (perhaps Temptations?) while shopping for gifts. A 2015 spot for a product called Snacky Mouse (a cat toy that dispenses treats) had cats in boxing gloves punching a side of meat, a gelatin mold and so on.
When it comes to cat treats, "we're the leader in the categories, but only 50 per cent of cat owners are treating," said Neely, who has a dog.
As for Catterbox, there was some thought of rolling it out commercially, but the technology wasn't quite ready, the executives who worked on it said.
"There were some disappointed cat owners, but they appreciated the idea behind it," Neely said.
The New York Times