An Instagram account for her rescue Chihuahua Chloe Kardoggian, age 9, founded more than two years ago by graphic designer Dorie Herman had no idea it would become a cult following.
The account’s primary goal was to serve as a conduit for contact between Chloe’s new family and the family of her previous owner. However, the account already has over 90,000 followers. She has been on the Today Show and cooperated with corporations like Swiffer and Clorox for paid engagements. To aid other senior animals in need of rescue, she devotes her free time to charity work. When it comes to her popularity as a pet influencer, both her little height and huge tongue play a role; nevertheless, it is her personality that has elevated her beyond the others.
“I firmly feel that people flock to her because of the charisma,” says Herman. There is a citation required for this. [Reference required] She has “a little Mae West in her,” a person said.
The Surprises
A surprising increase in the number of well-known pets like Grumpy Cat, Esther the Wonder Pig, and Toast the toothless King Charles Spaniel has occurred as a result of the rise of social media. For those in the pet business who have a large following on social media, lucrative book sales, calendar contracts, and sought-after marketing partnerships are possible. This is in addition to whatever compensation YouTube may be able to provide for advertising revenue.
When they emerge in our feeds, these animals have the capacity to provoke an emotional reaction from us. Many of these famous dogs are portrayed as having human-like characteristics by the texts that accompany their images, and the contrast between the two draws our attention. They are also owned by people just like us, which makes them even more relatable.
There are “wonderful territory for marketers” if the celebrity pet is exploited correctly, according to DigitasLBi vice president and social strategy director Tesa Horehled. When it comes to marketing, there are constantly new techniques to get our fragmented attention.
There is a long history of celebrity pets and our desire to make them seem like they’re just like us. This may be a consequence of the greater isolation that modern life delivers.
In Search of a Partner
Volcanoes and rain gods have long had special powers bestowed upon them by humans, who have always anthropomorphized the natural world. The want to do so with certain animals, on the other hand, is rather new. Kurt Gray, a professor of psychology at the University of North Carolina, says that when animals were seen as tools (or threats) to human survival, there was less of a need to probe into their thoughts.
As Gray puts it, anthropomorphism is all about “using our own thinking as a technique of knowing other brains,” and it’s more intimately linked to the society surrounding pets than to creatures that we’re ready to eat.
Conclusion
It’s often believed that the practise has grown in popularity since more people are emigrating to cities and living independently. Every year, Americans spend more than $60 billion on pets, and over two-thirds of all households in the nation have at least one pet.
