Product placement isn't stopping with people, and neither are TV dinners.
Welcome, cats, to Meow TV. Invite your humans to watch along with you.
Oxygen cable network's latest offering is also its first foray into advertiser-produced
programming, the sponsor being the Meow Mix Company. Rolled out in late
May, the show offers visuals with cat appeal -- birds, fish and the like.
But it's aimed mostly at the folks who buy cat food; there are feline
tricks, cat poetry recited by comedian Sandra Bernhard, and politicians
appealing to the pet vote. It's a parody, but it's no joke.
"With Meow TV, we wanted to change the way people think about cats
in America," said Richard Thompson, chief executive of Meow Mix,
based in Secaucus, N.J. "You see dogs everywhere."
Comedian Annabelle Gurwich and her nine-year-old cat Stinky host the
program. Interspersed among Meow Mix commercials are musical PSAs for
neutering as well as parody spots for make-believe products like CDs for
cats (Feel the Heat).
"Meow Mix is the largest brand of cat food in America, and our brand
is fun," said Thompson. "We wanted to create something that
cats and the humans they tolerate could have fun with."