Are you "Cat People"?

When you walk into a pet store, why does the cat area seem like an afterthought compared to the huge selection of doggy toys, beds and foods? And why is the stereo-type of a cat person so different from that of a dog person? Just mention "cat lady" and we easily imagine a crazy woman draped in an old housecoat living with 20 or more cats. Are cat people somehow maligned?

In a feel-good spot, Purina is uniting cat people together by turning the cat lady stereo-type on its head through a collection of testimonials by men, women and children declaring "I'm a cat person" and why.

....Because she makes me laugh even when I feel like crying
Because he doesn't care if I'm having a bad hair day
Because it's nice to have someone around who's smarter than me
Because of the way he sleeps on my head.....

The ad was launched on the Country Music Awards on Sunday and invited viewers to tweet their reason for being a cat person using the #catperson hashtag. The tweets were streamed live on two billboards in Times Square and the brand has been sending TwitPics of many of the Times Square tweets to the people who wrote them.

It's a simple and clever way to build an emotional connection to the Purina brand and create a community among cat people.