Self-Cleaning Litter Boxes Spark Feline Frenzy in New ‘Catspiracy’ Ad Campaign by PetSafe Brand

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PetSafe^® Brand, an industry leader in the development of innovative pet behavioral, containment and lifestyle product solutions, is shedding light on why cats are convinced their owners have ulterior motives for scooping their poo in a new digital campaign to promote one of its leading lines of self-cleaning litter boxes.

The “Catspiracy” campaign, which features PetSafe Brand’s popular ScoopFree^® Self-Cleaning Litter Box, was designed by Chattanooga, Tennessee-based advertising agency Humanaut. Ryan Anderson, category manager for PetSafe Waste Management products, said the concept for the satirical ads was to capture the fun and humor that many cat parents experience on a daily basis.

“Cats rule the internet these days, so when PetSafe Brand wanted to reintroduce the world to the ScoopFree Self-Cleaning Litter Box, we partnered with Humanaut to create a video that all cat owners (or better yet, cats) could relate to,” Anderson said. “With the Catspiracy campaign, we really wanted to try something new that would be funny and engaging for viewers but still highlight the benefits of ScoopFree. We hope the viewers laugh as much as we did while we were making it.”

The Catspiracy campaign features a two-minute film shot from the felines’ POV. In the cynical spot, cats observe their owners’ odd behavioral shift after purchasing the time-saving and touch-free ScoopFree device, which sweeps the waste and smell away once the pet is done with its business. The cats adopt numerous conspiracy theories, believing that humans must be harvesting their poo for their own devious reasons.

“People dread having to scoop the litter box every day, but from a cat’s perspective, it must seem like poop is really important,” explained David Littlejohn, Humanaut’s chief creative director. “We had a lot of fun imagining the feline conspiracy theories that this super smart, self-cleaning litter box would spark in the cat world.”

The ScoopFree videos debuted on Facebook, YouTube and TV this month, and future buys will be optimized based on performance. In addition to the feature film, which was also edited in 30- and 15-second increments, Humanaut also developed meme-inspired static banner ads and a Catspiracy website that embodies the conspiracy theme through its use of flashing lights and exaggerated punctuation.