What do you think about the lint roller cat? Do you find it funny and clever? Or perhaps you find it ethically unacceptable. You can tell me in the poll below.
Now I’ll tell you what I think! For the record, in general I don’t like political correctness. I don’t like censoring people. I like free speech and the truth. I like liberal views and a live and let live world provided we respect each other and don’t harm each other. I include human to human interactions and human to animal interactions.
I believe that this clever image, which incidentally is a bit of fancy photoshopping, is not a good idea. For visitors who are unsure, it is not real . The whole thing was created on a computer using software such as Photoshop.
As an aside, you can see that the cat is a flat faced Persian. What some people call an “Ultra Persian” because it has been bred to extremes to create the unnaturally flat face which makes it ideal for this project. It sort of fits in well and makes the image more believable.
I do find it very clever, I will admit, but for me it does not respect the cat. It demeans the cat and it reflects a relationship with the domestic cat that is not quite in balance. It sort of sends out the signal that we can abuse and use the cat as we wish. A lot of people do that and so I don’t like to see images that even in a small, almost insignificant, way encourages cat abuse.
I know a lot of people will think that I am being overly prudish and politically correct. I disagree. I just want to see less abuse of the cat. There is too much of it and sometimes it is almost casual in its nature. A lack of education is the major problem and some people will actually believe, when looking at this picture, that a real live Persian cat was used to create the image. It is that clever.
I believe that words and images can gradually alter our perceptions and sensitivities. We need to be careful about how we use images. After all, advertising is all about that, gently indoctrinating people into believing certain things about products. And people are very impressionable particularly young people. If we are to change attitudes towards the domestic cat in the interests of cat welfare we should be careful in our use of images, clever, innocent or not.
Note:
- My thanks to Elena for showing me the picture. You’re a great lady and;
- As to copyright regarding this picture, I am in breach of copyright in publishing it here but I claim fair use in the interests of education and cat welfare and on the basis that it does no commercial harm to the owners of the copyright. If the author disagrees, I’ll remove it immediately on notification (please leave a comment).
Please search using the search box at the top of the site. You are bound to find what you are looking for.
no, 110 in fact 🙂
Just checked back to see only ONE person out of 100 thinks it’s amusing!
GOOD old PoC visitors
🙂
When I first saw it, it had the cat laying their getting lint rolled… Then this pic…
With the caption that said: “TOO STICKY!!!”
I never thought of it from that perspective. I’m really upset about one of the posts shared via Catster.com. A cat that has a clept palate that has gone up into it’s eye. Now she uses her ‘ugly cat’ (her words, not mine) to raise money for shelters. Why in the heck doesn’t she get that poor cat surgery?!! I am without words. I hate animal abuse. When I was very young an older neighborhood boy kept flicking a very young kitten over and over because it made me cry. I was like four. Poor thing. Anyway, a link to the Catster story: http://www.catster.com/cat-chic/cat-photos-my-ugly-kitty-quasi
I feel like you and most PoC visitors are the same. I’ll have a look at this story.
The fact that it is an extreme bred cat, beyond what is good and healthy – and the nature of that extremeness is symbolised by the ‘flat face’ – makes this ad to be in extra poor taste. That is not to say I would approve if it were made using an image of regular, more healthy shaped cat.
As it happens, I am a photoshop person in that a large portion of my job entails working with photoshop. To be honest, it’s not such a hard image to make in my opinion. I have been given much harder things to do over the years. I could back that comment up with an explanation but I don’t want to bore people with technical blurb not totally related to the subject.
I have worked for advertisers in the past and I can tell you for certain that this image would be considered as good and to be used without question because there is a clever element to having thought up this particular idea. But the conversation I would have liked to have heard would have been that made at the meeting with the advertiser and client sat at a big table, where the advertiser ‘justifies’ his idea. In particular I would want to hear what thoughts they had concerning the political viability of it, if any. I actually question whether or not they even went so far as to question if it might be offensive or not, but I am fairly synical when it comes to humans and anything that involves making money.
As it all also happens I have been lucky enough not to be faced with the prospect of doing work such as this, which I would be totally against doing. I have neither had to do anything for companies whos existence alone pisses me off – for example I was never asked to tweek an imagew of a hamburger for Macdonalds, although I once turned down being involved in an advertising campaign for cocacola here in Switzerland. I should have said exactly what I thought but I said I had previous engagements. That was a failure on my part since I think people need to hear it in the practical world, not just in idealistic conversations outside of the workplace. But I also wanted to be hired again for something more reasonable in the future. Sometimes its awful to be human and need money!
Nonetheless – I doubt the art director of this particular ad even bothered to research the politics of it since as Michael says, cats are not really given that consideration. I wonder how it would go with a dog in the same place – but the most interesting is what Ruth said, what if it were a human. Therein lies the point. In order to research this from and marketing standpoint, in an ideal world, a human should be put there as a measurement for research purposes. That really would be an ideal world where people considered animals as equals.
Really good point Ruth!
I am convinced that no one involved in its production gave thought to the ethics of it and the cat was chosen because the cat is an abused animal. Even the funny videos (as I keep saying) are a form of abuse. The flat face of the Persian is also more open to abuse because it is silly looking. That is the fault of the breeders who themselves are abusing the cat in creating a freak that is unhealthy and therefore less content for their convenience and enjoyment. It really shows up the lack of respect for the cat by mainstream people.
I hate it too, it looks like a real dead cat and I can just imagine the cat haters saying that’s how all cats should be!
I don’t think it’s clever of whoever photoshopped it, I think it shows a sick mind.
Imagine the outcry if there was a picture of a human like that!
I’ve never seen that picture before today, I never want to see it again, it’s horrible and unattractive, maybe even the product of a slightly sick mind, there’s nothing there for cat lovers, just photoshop lovers.
Agreed.
Cats are about love and sharing feelings of calmness. The purr, the rub up against us. They become part of the family. We love cute and pix of them because they are more than just images to us. They are living bundles of sweetness, love and acceptance. I think it’s only natural for us to anthropomorphize them. I think mash-up is clever and funny.
I have been thinking about how we anthropomorphize animals as I watched the recent Science Channel shows about the Mars Rover Curiosity’s landing. As they talked to them and those who worked with the previous two Opportunity and the now dead Spirit the rovers seemed to take on personalities. I found myself anthropomorphizing them even before I saw that these scientist and engineers were doing it as well.
I think it’s a natural thing for us to do. I like cute pix from real sources — not the posed crap with the stars pretending to have a cat, dog, etc. I don’t like it when people care more about the money they make than their animal. I look at blogs like Daisy the Curly Cat or Adan Everyday as artistic creation, using willing creatures (the cats and some other creatures.) and the minds of their humans. Adan sent me a Christmas card one year. I knew it was from his mom, but I still treasure it. I just love cats. I love to look at them, laugh at them and enjoy their presence as often as I can while I’m on this earth.
Dan