In some ways , occupation partners Tony Levine and Ed Jaeger pulled off a flawless strategy . For a duet of feverish years in the late 1980s , they soldhalfof a stuffed animal at full retail Leontyne Price . The catch ? It got the Humane Society and animal lovers everywhere on their tail .
Their idea , Krushed Kitty , was decorative satire : At a clip when jillion of the great unwashed were set up stuffedGarfield windowpane decorationson their auto , Levine and Jaeger market an orangish - and - black feline trunk . Tuck it into a bole or sunshine-roof and it appeared as though you ’d driven off depart a half - mangled cat in your Wake Island .
It was profitable — and controversial . “ I got hate mail from Christian evangelists , literally praying and write about my deserved eternal damnation to go to hell , ” co - inventor Levine tell Mental Floss . But for every critic was someone who did n’t bear in mind a little dark humor .
Pick of the Litter
Accessories to personalize motorcar have been around for decades . In the 1920s , people attached fake silk hat tails to their Ford Model Ts . That gave way to decorativehood ornaments , blurry dice , bumper stickers , and then , in the 1980s , the ultimate in auto kitsch : a stuffed Garfield toy that stuck to car windows using sucking cups .
Dakin , the troupe behind the accessory , sold 2 million Garfields in 1987 . The plush cat base on the comic strip was so democratic that thieves would discover into vehicle to pilfer them , leaving railway car receiving set and other valuable behind .
The phenomenon did not go unnoticed by Levine and Jaeger . The pair — who had been friend while growing up in Tarzana , California — reconnected at a third-year high school day reunion after a decade apart . They were uniquely suited to come up with a Riffian on the car décor craze : Jaeger had designed an anti - theft equipment for BMW radios , while Levine had a degree in product aim and once worked at the company that helped produceTeddy Ruxpin , the talking , storytelling bear that also sparked a major toy craze in the ‘ 80s .
In interviews , the couple did n’t totally notice Garfield as the intake . Instead , theybatted around a interrogative sentence : “ What if a cat tried to go along on a trip with you and did n’t quite make it as you closed the trunk ? ” ( There was some common law , though it was n’t gory : Jaeger owned a cat who care to dive in and out of his car ’s sunshine-roof . )
harmonise to Levine , stirring also come from the Esso ( afterwards Exxon ) Panthera tigris , a mascot thatrepresentedthe Esso gasoline place chain in the 1960s . Consumers filling up on petrol could get a faketiger tailthat nip around the tank , giving credence to the company slogan “ Put a Panthera tigris in your tank . ”
A few nappy sketches resulted in Krushed Kitty , which some would interpret as a satirical take on the Garfield fad . After creating a prototype , the two stuffed it into the trunk and slay the road for a run drive .
“ It set out a fantastic response , ” Jaeger toldPeoplein 1988 . “ People kept honk , pulling us over , require where they could bribe one . ”
While it was not explicitly advertised as a spoof , the toy ’s distinctive colouration design made it exonerated : the package root on consumers to “ Krush your kitty in your car , workplace , or home ! ” The two formed the Krushed Kritter Kompany of Kalifornia and raised $ 65,000 to finance the project , including $ 50,000 from Levine ’s parent .
“ My parents lent me the money to fund our first production run , ” Levine aver . “ I had always been an artificer , and my parent were always supportive of my originative side , but they often said , ‘ How in the hell are you fail to make a living being a clothes designer ? ’ Ed and I had gone to a miniature swap show . We compute if we sold 500 [ piece ] , then we would go into production . Well , in those two 24-hour interval , we sell 5000 . That convince my parents the crazy idea was n’t maybe too dotty . ”
Those early order of magnitude were just a warm - up : By mid-1988 , they had trade 165,000 Krushed Kitty toys . The animals could be discover at schmaltzy shops likeSpencer giving , where the $ 18 to $ 25 novelty plaything ( $ 47 to $ 65 today ) come along to be a hip option to the staid Garfield .
“ The Garfields have died ; they ’ve had their 24-hour interval , ” one novelty store emptor order . “ We thought this would be the next step . Right now it ’s not a fad because it ’s so new . ”
But there was something Levine and Jaeger had n’t describe for : the wrath of the cat parents .
Claws Out
queerly , Krushed Kitty seemed tocapturesome kind of anti - cat sentiment in the zeitgeist that class . In gain to the mangled feline , bauble stores pitch Earl , the Dead Cat , a flattened plush with a death credential , as well as a book titled100 Ways to belt down Your Girlfriend ’s Cat , a mood book about terminating the deary .
The December 1988 result ofCat Fancy , long consideredthe Bible of cat lovers , carriedwith it a notice . Krushed Kitty , it said , “ is drawing furious protest from creature lovers . ” The clip helpfully included the address of the Krushed Kritter Kompany “ if you would like to reach the producer with your view of the merchandise . ”
The opinion of cat fancier was , predictably , poor . Phyllis Wright , the vice president of companion animals at the Humane Society , dubbed Krushed Kitty “ foul . ” Wright was particularly umbrageous at a quotation on the production package show that a portion of yield went to the Humane Society , insisting that no contribution had been receive . As Wright conceive this misdirect advertising , she even referred the affair to the California Attorney General ’s Office andcampaignedfor the toy to be aim off the market place .
“ This is a ridiculous symbol of something that none of us should be very gallant of — contempt for inhabit wight , ” she said . “ It is too easy to transfer this lack of sensitivity for cats to other live things like mass . ”
Speaking withThe Los Angeles Times , the business partners countered that they had donated to local chapters , though some were unwilling to accept any money . Eventually , theystoppedputting the declaration on packaging , though Levine said he had demonstrated to at least one district attorney in San Diego that the contribution were literal . An ASPCA spokesperson denounce the toy but could n’t confirm or abnegate any donation were made by Krushed Kritters , as their fundraising was organized by a third political party .
“ We made donation from the very start , ” Levine says today . “ Only one rescue organization returned our check . And that happened a long time after the wardrobe embark on . ”
The pushback resulted in at least one retailer , the northeast - based J.K. Gill Company , to pull the product . But Krushed Kritters hold on , with the company later introduce a Krushed Kow , Krushed Armadillo , and Krushed Gator .
While the choices offered salmagundi , it was also a way to commune it was all nothing more than a joke . “ We were surprise by the letters and press it had gotten . Ed and I were both creature lovers and cat owners . We never saw it the way the haters did . I never run into how a binge plaything was supposed to inspire or support harming creature . … But all the sexual love letter we got made up for it . One of my favorites was a female child in Japan who sent a photo of her wear her backpack with the Krushed Kitty she wore to school every day . ”
One shrink , Mark Kalish , toldThe Los Angeles Timesthat the black humour was n’t anything to worry about . “ It ’s all very healthy , ” he said . “ Tragedy humor is fundamentally a human response against grapple with negative emotion … it ’s a very archaic part of the brain . ”
Like most rage , Krushed Kitty had momentary fame . By 1990 , it had all but disappeared . According to Levine , while Garfield creator Jim Davis was disport by the concept , the eternal sleep of the braintrust at Paws , Inc. , the graphic symbol ’s licensing ship’s company , was not . “ From what I was told , he was a fan , ” Levine pronounce . “ The people who had the license for Garfield were the ones not well-chosen with us . There was no manner we could win a lawsuit from a company so boastful . So we say , OK … we will stop . And that ’s what we did . ”
The ultimate number of toys sell is something Levine demurs on , though he says the couplet sell “ many more ” than the 165,000 bit reported .
Though Jaeger and Levine are no longer in business enterprise together , Levine says they stay on in contact . And Levine is still in the bauble toy market place . Among other detail , his fellowship , Kizzymax , marketed a popular line of erotically - theme rubber duck’s egg under the name Big Teaze toy .
“ I have been very lucky that I have been able to bring my estimate to life , ” Levine says . “ It ’s not wanton at all . But it ’s rewarding to know you’re able to commit off things that hoi polloi think you ’re crazy for attempt . ”
