By Lisa Schick

Ad gone viral helps Winnipeg humane society

Feb 15, 2011 | 10:38 AM

They had girl cats, boy cats, used-to-be boy cats and a whole lot of other kinds of cats and thanks to their viral video the Winnipeg Humane Society has adopted out almost all of them.

Bill McDonald, CEO of the Winnipeg Humane Society, said the video worked great.

When they aired the ad, at the end of January, there were about 400 cats in the kennels and as of the second week in February they had 80.

“We’ve got the lowest number of cats in our building at this point right now than in the last three years,” said McDonald.

The video was created as a spoof of the old cheesy Kern-Hill Furniture Store ads with Andy Hill, the man featured in the video, using his father’s catch-phrase “come on down.”

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The video has gone viral on YouTube with over 300,000 views.

In January and February, Humane Societies and SPCAs tend to be overrun with cats.

The Prince Albert SPCA is no different.

Their kennels are full of cats right now and they have even had to foster some of the cats out to families because they have no room.

Deb Lehner, manager of the Prince Albert SPCA, said they haven’t done any ad campaigns like Winnipeg’s “kitty midnight madness” video, but after seeing how well it worked she will definitely consider it.

“Discussion with them and how they did it will certainly help us to perhaps put something together like this,” said Lehner.

Watch the video here.

lschick@panow.com