What do you do when you make the #1 selling brand of cat food in the world, but it's lagging behind in the United States?  Facing that problem, the makers of Whiskas hired a new U.S. advertising agency to change its approach to marketing the brand.  The account director at the ad agency said:  "The cat people we want to talk to celebrate cats as cats, instead of as surrogate children or babies."

   Celebrating cats as cats is pretty much what "What a Good Cat!" is all about, so naturally I like that kind of thinking.  Still, cats don't care about advertising -- they like what they like, and they don't like surprises.  Pat once prepared an attractive silk flower arrangement in a glass container and set it on the coffee table in the living room.  Lizzie soon came up and sniffed around it, but after licking a couple of leaves, she gave up on finding anything worth eating there.  As she turned away, Lizzie gave Pat a look that seemed to say, "Is this your idea of a joke?"

   Whiskas has one product that was called Kitty Stew, which reminds me of this line from the song Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavor on the Bedpost Overnight?:  "If tin whistles are made of tin, what do they make foghorns out of?"  Evidently someone at the company also realized that the English language is a funny thing, because on the shelves now, that product has been renamed "Kitty's Stew."