Fido’s new trick: product placement

Brands like American Express and Target are inking lucrative endorsement deals with socialmedia- famous critters, said Andy Newman in The New York Times. Cute animal photos are enormously popular on Instagram—catnip to companies looking to reach young consumers. A recent pop-up promotion for Scotch-Brite lint rollers in New York City offered fans the opportunity to take selfies with top “pupfluencers” like Toast, a spaniel with a hanging tongue and 377,000 Instagram followers. Toast works with the Dog Agency, a New York talent firm for animals whose clients include a pair of finger monkeys with more than 1_million followers. A pet celebrity can make as much as $10,000 for a piece of branded content, says Loni Edwards, the agency’s founder, and companies love that they don’t have to worry about the animals going off message. “A human influencer might get drunk at a party, or do something offensive,” she said. ■