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Ford Web ad upsets pet lovers

'Unauthorized' spot shows an animated cat being decapitated

By Nick Bunkley / The Detroit News


DEARBORN — A 39-second Internet commercial that Ford Motor Co. says it never meant to release is circling the globe through e-mails, appalling pet lovers with its depiction of a cat being decapitated.

The ad for the Ford Sportka, a hatchback sold in Europe, shows an animated but realistic-looking orange tabby cat climbing on top of the car and curiously poking its head into the open moonroof.

The moonroof slides closed and the cat struggles briefly to escape before its headless body slides to the ground.

Ford says the clip was conceived without its approval by ad agency Ogilvy & Mather as part of a “viral marketing” campaign for the Sportka, billed as the Ford Ka’s “evil twin.”

Companies can get widespread exposure for little money through viral marketing. Ads are posted online in the hopes that Web users will find them funny or entertaining and e-mail them to friends.

But as Ford has learned, once released the ads are out of anybody’s control and can float in cyberspace indefinitely.

“It replicates itself, and anything that is controversial is what’s likely to be shipped around the world,” said Sam Fullerton, who heads the department of marketing at Eastern Michigan University’s business school.

Fullerton has received the clip through e-mail several times, from as far away as New Zealand.

“It’s definitely created a buzz,” he said. “Some people argue that any buzz is good, but I don’t necessarily adhere to that philosophy.”

Ford did like another ad showing a cartoon pigeon getting a fatal whack from the Sportka’s hood and released it online last September.

The cat clip began circulating online several weeks ago, prompting Ford to apologize and begin investigating how it leaked out.

“We find this unauthorized ad totally unacceptable and reprehensible and deplore the fact that it has been unofficially issued,” Ford spokesman Oscar Suris said.

Ford is not the first company accused of sacrificing a cat in the name of Internet publicity.

Last year, cell phone maker Nokia denied responsibility for a clip showing a cat being spun around and flung into a wall after snaring its paw on the dangling cord of a ceiling fan.

The ad, for a camera phone sold in Australia, had been proposed by an outside agency and was immediately rejected, Nokia said.

“You don’t want to make fun of something like that,” said Evie Woods of Ferndale, a receptionist at Greenfield Animal Hospital in Southfield, who was shocked when she heard about the Sportka’s apparent hatred for felines.

“They definitely acted in poor taste. Luckily, I’m a Honda girl.”

You can reach Nick Bunkley at (313) 222-2293 or nbunkley@detnews.com.


image:


http://www.detnews.com/2004/autosins...c01-125840.htm

fahoumh

my cousin sent me a link to that clip...he thought it was hilarious and I thought it was disgusting.

Chaptorial

Yeah this vid was posted on here a bunch of times. No surprise they're up in arms over it.

Red-CL

I knew it was just a matter of time before someone protested it.

einsatz

It was funny.
It was linked to on this thread. I posted a link to another SportsKa commercial with a bird in that thread.
Nobody really cared that a bird was getting swatted the fuck out by a huge sheet of metal, yet the cat thing is too much? Isn't that a double standard? If you call yourself an animal lover shouldn't you also care about un-cute animals and non-mamal life forms?
WTF, I mean, I love animals but it's still funny.
(rant not directed at anyone)

ruski_RENAMED

people need to get a life

Black CL-S 4-Life

The commercial was funny as hell.

soopa

ya this commercial is hilarious.

people need to relax

harami

bunch of pussies.

ruski_RENAMED

I only saw one pussy.

goldmemberer

Activists of the pet lover and feminist varieties repeatedly present themselves as total fucking idiots.

EdgarFanCLS

Where's the humor in seeing an animal getting decapitated?

Would you be laughing if it was a dog? I would be willing to bet you'd see a TON of people on this forum all ripshit and up-in-arms if there was a commercial depicting something horrible happening to a dog. There's your double standard right there.

charliemike

If that ad demonstrated anything, it was the lack of imagination of the advertising agency.

goldmemberer

I think more along the lines of lack of foresight. Or maybe this is another public tit-display for attention? I don't know how anyone could put that ad out there without expecting this.

But "this" (being this reaction) is still fucking stupid. It's obviously graphically done. Nobody's trying to kill dogs or cats.