The simplest-looking projects are often the most challenging. When Gourmet cat food came to the Guardian Labs earlier this year with the idea for a campaign based around their feline foodie Archie, we knew it had the potential to be great. We did not expect it to become a tale of kidnap, torture and extortion.
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Archie came to us from Gourmet as a white cat with some TV commercials behind him. The big challenge was finding his voice in print, for a project that was to stretch over six months of Observer Food Monthly back covers, with a significant online presence.
As the world’s foremost feline foodie, he should sound authoritative, but not snobby. An early touchstone was PG Wodehouse, but the vocabulary of Jeeves and Wooster was too much of a stretch. Archie, we decided, was a highly domesticated animal that, we thought, would know about food, but only within his own experience. He could not authoritatively comment on human dining, except insofar as it smelt like Gourmet.
Then, as per Wodehouse, there was the question of Archie’s relationship with his owner(s) to consider. He was a family cat and a couple’s cat before he became the single woman’s cat that you behold today. Early versions of his column have him writing a diary and describing his owners as servants. But that felt too posh, and the conceit of a cat keeping a diary felt like a push too far.
All of the above took a long time to process. A lot of emails. Many pub conversations. Archie began to seep into my dreams. Then, one day, this pottery facsimile of a white cat, not unlike Archie, appeared on my desk.
This was a gift from our deluded acting art director, Ian Richardson, a man with an overdeveloped sense of mischief, no discernible sense of restraint and – apparently – a spare £5.50 to spend on pot cats.
Potcat did not instantly become the indisputable leader of the gang, but over the course of the week, it did become part of the team, pulling its weight as a paperweight.
And then it was gone, presumed removed by overzealous office cleaners.
Until the following day, when this note arrived in the internal mail.
Along with this.
Clearly, something had to be done. Since this nine-word note did not contain a single spelling mistake, we reasoned, it was unlikely to be one of the graphic designers. The sword of suspicion therefore hung heavy over our small team of editors. This despite the misidentification of Potcat and Archie, when all they really have in common is their colour.
After I demanded proof of life a second note arrived – the one that would crack the case wide open.
No editor worth his salt would have believed the French franc was still a currency, and no one would have spelt “franc” with a “k”. The designers had over-reached themselves.
In the end, a payment of 2p left in a paper bag on the photocopier was enough to secure both the return of Potcat and a confession from one of the design team.
And Potcat?
He seems no worse for his ordeal, and is currently on a waiting list for paw re-attachment surgery.
Nigel Kendall is the senior content manager at the Guardian Labs.
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