A Better Mousetrap

The Heavy Task of Cleaning up Cat Poop

Marketers often work themselves up into a hot, sweaty lather over POS (point of sale) displays.  It shames me to admit this, but I never really got it until a few weeks ago when I saw a display that focused on the messy task of – cleaning up cat poop.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaand all the dog people just left….!  Wait, wait!!  Dog people come back!!  I swear I’ll cover some dog-related issue soon.  Like, did you hear about the cross between a bulldog and a beagle that’s sweeping the nation…?  It’s true!!  It’s true!  Google it if you don’t believe me!!

Or, wait, wait, what about the mayor of an affluent California town who was caught on camera leaving a bag of dog dooty on his neighbor’s walkway?!!  Dude, you don’t even have to Google that one, trust it will show up on your news feed any minute now.

Now, now dog people, don’t go!!!  …What about this European kid’s game that is finally having its day in America, the Doggie Doo Game!  Haven’t heard of it?  Feed and walk the little pup, if he makes a mess you clean it up! When you squeeze his leash he makes a gassy sound that gets louder and louder until…….plop. The first one to clean up after the dog three times wins!! (…Or loses, as the case may be….).  Fun for the whole family!!

And since we are talking about poop, back to the POS display on cat poop.  Sounds gross, right?  Nope, totally professionally done.  

However – IF by chance you are now feeling deep disappointment, like you read this deep into this blog, looking, just looking and hoping for some juvenile poop puns, toilet humor and great pooping euphemisms, just click here.

The rest of you marketers of….um, well, ….of…poop (…Oh, come on….Aren’t we all?  At least…on some level…?), please read on.

So since I’ve kept only the cat people and marketers of poop still reading, I think we can all agree that poop is generally heavy stuff.  And the actual litter always feels heaviest when you are hauling it home from the grocery store, along with other extremely dense household products, like, say, a 64 oz jug of liquid Tide, a one-lb bag of flour, 2 lbs of chicken, three 34 oz boxes of beef broth, three 2-liters of Pepsi and a 175 oz box of Cascade dishwashing powder.  It might just be my own grocery list (and I don’t even have kids!!!), but I’m tired just thinking about hauling it all home.

How better to introduce Tidy Cat Lightweight Litter than to, quite literally, hold it up against the weight of regular litter?!?!!  Check it out!

Tidy Cat Hawks their new LightWeight Litter in Kmart

These savvy marketers set up the POS so you can literally “Lift it to Believe…” the difference between normal litter and their new LightWeight version.  It’s also got all the subtext that leads you to believe that it’s just as effective as your normal heavier litter (clumping, odor controlling, dust free).

All that might be missing is a tear pad with a coupon.

But, since these are savvy poop marketers we are talking about, I’d bet that it wasn’t an omission to leave out coupons.  These folks are probably confident that they have a better mousetrap, so you won’t be catching any coupons here.  At least not until Fresh Step steps in it….and there’s your pun.