Cat Herders
EDS (Electronic Data Systems)2000
Cat Herders is a 2000 60-second television commercial for EDS, created by Fallon McElligott, Minneapolis.
The line
We ride for the brand.
Why it works
How to make an invisible IT company famous in sixty seconds: take the management cliché "it's like herding cats" literally. Grizzled cowboys drive thousands of house cats across the Montana prairie, speaking with straight-faced reverence about lint rollers and being "a cat herder." Aired during Super Bowl XXXIV in 2000, it is studied for turning a B2B brief — reposition a lumbering systems integrator for the dot-com age — into mainstream entertainment, and for its deadpan Western craft (director John O'Hagan studied John Ford films and cast real cowboys). President Bill Clinton named it his favorite commercial, and it earned an Emmy nomination — rare air for an ad about enterprise IT services.
Techniques
- Humour Takes the cliché about herding cats literally, with grizzled cowboys driving thousands of house cats across the prairie and speaking reverently about lint rollers.
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