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Niche Media
P.O. Box 73345
Davis, CA 95617
Phone: (530) 759-0848
Fax: (530) 759-0489
Email: carl@campniche.com
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Catnip for advertisers
But free cat offer has fake phone number
by Laurie Baum - Herald Business Writer
as published in "The Miami Herald"
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Computer Language's 28-year-old publisher had only one cat to give
away: this one, pictured twice here. |
First, Lee Iaccoca said: "Buy a car. Get a check."
Now, Carl Landau says: "Buy an ad. Get a cat."
The 28-year-old publisher of Computer Language magazine is offering potential advertisers free felines, by express mail, if they buy an ad in his monthly.
There's a catch.
The 800-number is phony.
And when you call Carl at the 415-number also listed in the ad, he tells you he really doesn't have cats to give away.
The only giveaway is his pet cat Kazoo. In the ad, Kazoo is pictured twice, once sitting on top of a pedestal, and a second time, from the neck down, with a Federal Express and Special Delivery tag pasted on his stomach.
"It's just a joke," Landau says from his San Francisco office. "I wanted to get rid of my cat. That's all."
"I've gotten about 30 calls since the magazine was mailed out to subscribers last week," he said. None wanted to buy ads; most just asked if the ad is for real. "If people insist, I'll send them a cat on a plane."
The August edition of the 34,000 circulation magazine, with the ad, hit the newstands Tuesday.
Landau, a Cleveland native who has published the magazine for one year, also got
a protest call from an animal protection group because in the ad, Kazoo seems
to be hanging. Actually, Landau says, the cat was dangling from his hands, which
aren't pictured.
The ad may have aroused animal lovers, but it has yet to attract any attention from the Federal Trade Commission, which investigates complaints of false advertising.
"Technically, it may be false advertising," said FTC spokeswoman Susan Ticknor. "But you'd have to look for consumer injury. I'm a big cat fan, but not many people would be injured by not getting a little kitty."
Even Landau's mother, who lives in North Miami Beach, was amused by her son's stunt.
"It's typically his sense of humor... a little warped," Elaine Shoenfeld said. "He takes after his mother."
Landau says he won't stop at cats.
"My partner has a horse," Landau said. "We plan to do 'Buy an ad. Get a horse.' And then 'Buy an ad. Get a brother-in-law.'"
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