If you watch television, you might have seen the commercial where the cat follows around the hound who’s trying to help her find her litter box. She’s lost it, because it supposedly smells so clean she can’t detect it anymore.
Well, the marketing team for Fresh Step (that’s the brand of kitty litter in the commercial) has come up with an ingenious campaign to promote their product. They’ve invented the Lost Litter Box game. It’s a semi-interactive online game that gives players the chance to win a grand prize of $10,000 cash or one of 2,500 instant-win prizes. (Which is a Cat Photo Album/Record Keeper.)
The grand prize will be rewarded sweepstakes style. To enter the drawing you need to go to the Fresh Step site. You fill out a form asking for basic information (name, snail mail address, email address, birth date) and also enter the code in a box at the bottom left of the screen. You hit enter and then you’re taken to the “game” for your chance to win an instant prize.
This is where the semi-interactive parts comes in. You get to choose one of three assistant detectives to aid in your investigation: a detective, a bloodhound, or a psychic. Once you make your selection, you then get to pick which room to investigate: kitchen, utility, or living room. Then the search begins.
Spokescat Ginger and whichever assistant you’ve chosen start searching whatever room you’ve chosen. They make a couple of wrong choices along the way before voila! They find the litter box! You’re then informed whether it’s an instant-win prize find or not.
But don’t worry, even if you don’t win, you still get something: in my case, a $2 off coupon to try the new litter.
So what is their new product and what makes it smell so clean Ginger can’t even find it? Activated carbon.
This type of carbon is widely used in other products too, like water and air filters, even fish tank filters. It’s a very porous material, which makes it ideal for absorbing odors. The makers of Fresh Step have combined litter granules with activated carbon to enhance their product and make it more fresh smelling.
It comes in three varieties: Fresh Step Scoopable Litter, Fresh Step Scoopable Cedar Litter, and Fresh Step Plus Dual Action Crystals.
You’re only allowed one chance per day at the instant-win game. My cat Mr. Meow prefers a different brand of litter, but he humors me and lets me “investigate” daily anyway. After all, in his words, “Do you know how much cat nip you can buy me with ten grand?”
P.S.
The promotional period, and thus the game, end March 31, 2007.
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The Litter Box: A Study in Cattitude
For Cat Owners: More Litter Boxes