Cat lovers across the country are expressing their displeasure with the administration’s use of kittens in an advertisement to promote Obamacare signups.
The offending image, found on the website “The Adorable Care Act,” shows four adorable kittens in a supposed Valentine’s Day greeting with the caption: “Treat yourself right this Valentines Day. Get pamPURRED with health care.”
Henrietta Fourpaws of Felix, IL, made the point that the ad was stupid, but also claimed that exploiting young kittens in this fashion was cruel and unjust.
“Just look at their faces,” she said. “They’re bored and unhappy. Wouldn’t you be if you were forced to shill for a total disaster? It’s like putting them in the front seat of an Edsel.”
Gladys Purrdy of Morris, PA, was even more forceful in her denunciation of the ad. “How dare they use such beautiful creatures for a grubby enterprise like Obamacare,” she said. She added, “Besides, the kittens make poor sales critters for Obamacare. Everyone knows that cats are way too independent to obey the individual mandate, plus, they’re far too smart to believe the president after he told us ‘If you like your vet, you can keep your vet. Period.'”
Satire aside, the insulting reason for using cute little animals is that the White House thinks young women will fall all over themselves to sign up if the cute little critters are used as bait:
[T]he implication that younger women will “pay attention” if kittens and puppies are featured is insulting. This isn’t the first time Obamacare has made insulting ads attempting to attract their target audiences to sign up for the program. The “keg stand” and “brosurance” campaigns received some serious mocking on the internet, not to mention the “gay” ad created to reach the gay community.
Cats aren’t the only creatures being abused. Other tortured images include baby pandas (“Not having insurance? That’s PANDAmonium!”), baby polar bears (“You’re BEARY special to me, so please get covered!”), and a baby badger (“I don’t mean to badger you, but it’s time to get covered”).
I think the caption writers have a career ahead of them with Hallmark.
On Thursday, the White House’s official Twitter account shared several images from a newly created Tumblr called the Adorable Care Act–a cute play on the the Affordable Care Act– featuring a spate of cuddly creatures thanking Obamacare for providing them with healthcare coverage. (Because Obamacare apparently extends coverage to kittens, ducklings and rabbits as well.)
“Kitten coverage till age 26: prayers answered. Thanks Adorable Care Act.” Reads one gif with a ridiculously cute kitten. Another one, featuring a piglet, asks, “Wait being cute isn’t a pre-existing condition anymore?”
If you give into the cuteness and fall for the clickbait, the Tumblr directs you to Healthcare.gov, a government sponsored site that explains how to enroll in the health exchanges under Obamacare that takes effect Oct 1.
The Tumblr, created by a former Obama campaign staffer, is just the latest effort by Obamacare advocates to convince young people to sign up for health insurance through the exchanges starting next week.
Apparently Obama’s team of celebrity recruiters–like Oprah Winfrey, LeBron James and Jay-Z, among others–just isn’t cutting it.
Meanwhile, opponents of Obamacare have not been sitting idle, as you’ll see on the next page.
They’re pushing back on the website Not-So Adorable Care Act:
There is the smell of desperation with this gambit, as if they’re scraping the bottom of the barrel for ideas. As the editor of the American Thinker, Thomas Lifson, wonders, will this be next? (Full disclosure: I am blog editor at AT):
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