Friskies Asks Celebrity and Civilian Cats What They’ll Do #IfYouFeedMe Wet Food
The If You Feed Me campaign asks cat owners to create memes that illustrate the great lengths their cats will go to for some wet food.
The If You Feed Me campaign asks cat owners to create memes that illustrate the great lengths their cats will go to for some wet food.
In the 1989 Kevin Costner movie Field of Dreams, the infamous refrain was, “If you build it, he will come.”
In a 2013 Friskies campaign, it’s, “If you feed me…”
That’s the name of an effort that launched November 12 and focuses on the brand’s position that all cats deserve wet food.
As part of the campaign, Friskies has brought together what it calls five of the world’s top Internet celebrity cats to rally for this “very important cause.” These cats include Colonel Meow, Nala Cat, Hamilton the Hipster Cat, Oskar the Blind Cat and Grumpy Cat, the official “spokescat” of Friskies.
These celebrity cats are pledging what they’ll do for wet food via memes and are encouraging others to contribute with their own memes on the If You Feed Me website, through a meme generator.
According to Friskies Brand Manager Shawn Brain, Friskies has received thousands of submissions so far on the If You Feed Me website. Consumers have also been uploading images on Instagram and Tumblr with the hashtag #ifyoufeedme.
Friskies is supporting the campaign with a video plea by cats publicly stating what they will or won’t do if they can get a taste of wet food. As of November 24, the video has 431,000 views.
Friskies is also sharing some of the memes on Facebook. The brand has 746,000 fans and 10,000 Twitter followers.
In addition, the celebrity cats are sharing their memes with their own social networks. Grumpy Cat has the largest social following with 2.3 million likes, followed by Colonel Meow with 240,000 likes, Oskar the Blind Cat with 124,000 likes, Nala Cat with 89,000 likes and Hamilton the Hipster Cat with 48,000 likes.
According to Brain, the brand included the featured celebrity cats because they have distinct characteristics that “we think match the fun personality of Friskies.”
If You Feed Me is not about supporting a specific line of wet cat food, but rather it’s “all about making the mealtime experience more fun,” Brain says.
According to Brain, If You Feed Me is a precursor to a “monumental holiday event” on December 10, in which the five cats will come together live to make a holiday debut around wet food.
Friskies is manufactured by Nestlé Purina PetCare.