• by Tanya Gazdik , October 29, 2020

In honor of National Cat Day (Oct. 29), Church & Dwight’s Arm & Hammer cat litter is launching a digital campaign to help “purrfectly impurrfect” cats find homes. 

Between now and Thanksgiving, animal shelters are invited to nominate all their felines who have been overlooked because of their age, appearance or misunderstood personalities on FelineGenerousStories.com.

A panel of cat experts will also select three winning cats from those nominated, and their shelters will receive $10,000 each, plus counseling services provided by Pam Johnson-Bennett, certified cat behavior consultant.

Cat lovers are invited to help spread the word to their local shelters to make a nomination, and can browse the Feline Generous site to adopt and share nominations using the hashtags  #FelineGenerous #Contest.

The brand worked with PureRed and The VIA Agency on the effort.

In early 2020, when Perdita, “the world’s worst cat,” caught the internet’s attention for her feisty behavior at Mitchell County Animal Rescue, Arm & Hammer Cat Litter stepped in to make sure she had the best chance for a smooth transition into her new home by offering counseling services from Johnson-Bennett.

The trainer helped acclimate her to her new home and prove there is no such thing as a “bad” cat,” says Rebecca Blank, group brand manager, Arm & Hammer Pet Care. 

The brand created Feline Generous, an online platform that connects people to a network of local cat shelters across the country to help increase adoption and generate product and monetary donations, including access to shelter-specific Amazon Wish Lists. 

“This initiative empowers cat lovers to celebrate the joy that comes from adopting a cat and to give back to their neighborhood shelter in return,” Blank tells Marketing Daily. 

While the effort may be similar to a program from Subaru that champions hard-to-adopt dogs, Arm & Hammer says it wasn’t the impetus of this campaign.

“We hadn’t seen the ‘Underdog’ campaign until recently -- but we love it too, and the awareness it creates for all kinds of pets,” Blank says.

The campaign is open for people to nominate as many shelter cats as they want, she says. 

“We hope to see hundreds of nominations for 'purrfectly impurrfect' cats to give as many cats as possible national recognition to be adopted more easily,” Blank says. “Even a small act of sharing one of the nominations on social media will make a difference.”