Church & Dwight, of Arm & Hammer fame, has sued Clorox over comparative advertising of its “Fresh Step” litter brand. At issue is whether the comparison is scientific, per the WSJ Law Blog’s account:
“But cats do not talk, and it is widely understood in the scientific community that cat perception of malodor is materially different than human perception,” the lawsuit said. “Thus, it is not possible scientifically to determine whether cats view one substance to be more or less malodorous than another substance.”
More: Popehat.
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Maybe my kitty, Betty, can start earning big bucks as an expert witness. She has her way of telling me the litter smells–by leaving an “out of the box” message.
“…it is not possible scientifically to determine whether cats view one substance to be more or less malodorous than another substance…”
One of our cats absolutely HATES the smell of citrus, and can detect it on a table from the floor. She crinkles her nose and flees in disgust when she detects it.
And we have also observed that cats can communicate among one another quite well, especially when it comes to food. When one of them gets something tasty, they seem to make a cry that it immediately recognized by other cats as the “food cry”. It brings everyone running.
I would volunteer to sit on the jury for this case.
As the cat owners are stepping up, I can contribute that apparently my cat finds scented kitty litter malodorous.
But is people perception of lawyer litter materially different?
lawyer litter ?
LOL!
I have to agree that a double-blind controlled study could well determine which brand of cat litter is prefered by a majority of tested felines without actually having to interview the cats for their opinions…
If C&D wins, next up on the docket will be dogfood manufacturers suing each other overs ads claiming ‘our dogfood tastes better.’
btw – I once had a dog that ate an entire Presto log.