As any Internet humorist will tell you, felines are one of the few animals you can always laugh at when they hurt themselves. If a dog hurts itself, it’s generally a pretty sad affair (see Homeward Bound when “Shadow” tweaks his ankle attempting to crawl out of a 12-foot pit). If a cat hurts itself, it’s probably a good bet that it deserved it in some way (see Homeward Bound when “Sassy” gets flung about 40 yards off a teeter-totter into a sandbox). If you are over 30, you probably do not understand my Homeward Bound references in the least.
For the campaign ringing in the launch of Toyota’s new 2013 model of the Corolla, the folks at Saatchi & Saatchi New Zealand decided to put the world’s love affair with delighting in cats’ pain to the test. We see a sad feline stuffed into a cat carrier to be hauled off to the vet, only to experience the ride of its life in the back of a 2013 Corolla. Really, what cat wouldn’t be absolutely enthralled by the Corolla’s spacious and luxurious interior? Well, as you might guess, the cat associates harm with a chance to ride in the back of the car, and its fucked-up mental state leads to it harming itself in tragic ways that your whole family will guffaw at.
As with most individuals who find themselves associating pain with pleasure to an extreme extent, the kitty’s strange fetish leads to its demise. It just felt so good inside, you know? These things happen, and the cat’s transformation into zombie cat will most certainly make your children beg for a Toyota Corolla. Credits after the jump.
Agency – Saatchi & Saatchi NZ
ECD – Antonio Navas
CDs/Creatives – Corey Chalmers & Guy Roberts
Co-creatives – Sarah Litwin-Schmid & Emily Drake
Head of Content – Jane Oak
Head of Planning – Murray Streets
GAD – Mark Cochrane
AD – Emma Guadagni
Media Director – Sally Falconer
Production Company – GoodOil
Director – Hamish Rothwell
Producer – Sam Long
DOP – Crichton Bone
Editor – Peter Sciberras
Online – Blockhead – Nigel Mortimer
Audio Post – Liquid Studios
Music Composition – Elliott Wheeler
Music Production –
Turning Studios
Audio Post Production – Liquid
Sound Engineer – Craig Matuschka
Animal Trainer – Caroline Girdlestone