"Herding Cats" video

[magenta]

I just watched the video that's been going around, where they release 100 cats in an IKEA overnight, and filmed them. I find this piece very problematic for several reasons.

One, many of the cats look freaked. They are obviously used to a smaller space, with no other cats or only familiar ones. I saw cats hissing and starting to fight. I wonder what happened when the cameras weren't filming. Did any cats get hurt?

Two, where are the litterboxes? the water? the food? Okay, in the course of a few hours, they don't have to be fed; that may have been how they were lured back into carriers. But they should have had access to clean water, and if they didn't have litterboxes, who cleaned up the mess? Plus, for some cats, if they break litter-training once, they may not go back to using the litter-box consistently.

Third, and most important, did they warn customers who came in the next day that the cats had been there? What did they do about people who are allergic, both the next days, and in future? Someone with a serious cat allergy should not buy anything in the store that could have cat hair or dander.

And frankly, it wasn't all that cute.

Comments

[rm.livejournal.com]

Considering that this was for a commercial shoot that cost probably over a million bucks and there are strict rules regarding the use of animals in filming, these issues were probably addressed, albeit not in the making of video.

[naomikritzer]

I think the basic problem here is that they were trying to make a commercial shoot look like a whimsical experiment. It would've broken the illusion if they'd shown you the water bowls, etc.

I think I was less bothered by the "cats thrown into unfamiliar space" part because at least one of my cats would consider an IKEA to be the single greatest cat playground EVAR (even if she had to share it with other cats).

I had the same thought about the dander, though. I know people who have severe asthma attacks when exposed to cat hair; walking into that IKEA the day after filming could potentially land them in the hospital.

[naomikritzer]

Also, there were WAY too many humans blathering on and on and far too few kitties lounging on Ikea sofas.