Brand Ambassador for Pet Store: New career option?

I am an Economist and I teach in a Management School. I have many colleagues in the discipline of marketing and a number of our students are placed in companies with roles in marketing. So I am well aware of the term Brand. In simple terms a ‘Brand’ is a type of product manufactured by a particular company under a particular name. A relatively new term, popular in the past decade, is ‘Brand Ambassador’. A Brand Ambassador is defined as ‘a person, especially a celebrity, who is paid to endorse or promote a particular company’s products or services’. The key words are celebrity and paid. We normally think of popular movie stars like Shah Rukh Khan, brand ambassador for Byjus learning app, or Aishwarya Rai for beauty products. And they are paid in millions I believe. A new career is that of being an ‘Influencer’, person with more than 10,000 followers on social media! Influencers also become Brand Ambassadors. Being neither a celebrity nor an Influencer, imagine my shock when I received an offer from a pet store to be their Brand Ambassador! Now this is a long story.

As people who follow my blog know, I have been cooped up at home, Spaceship 502, over the last 14 month due to the raging pandemic. My companions during this Work From Home phase have been stray cats, Percival and Kitty, peacocks, flowers, cactus and other plants around. I photograph them in various moods, talk to them and enjoy their company. As the Psychiatrist Association announced, its OK to talk to animals and plants and you need help only if they talk back to you.

Stray cat Percival decided to adopt us. So he is around when we have breakfast and lunch, attends my online yoga class, though he often sleeps through it, attends my Zoom classes and even participates in the discussion!

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Percival is always on the lookout for when he can make an entry into the house! He thinks he is missing out by being outside. Couple of days ago Percival made a dramatic entry into the kitchen when I took my eyes off him for a few seconds! He walked around, sniffed around, calmly. I managed to capture him on the job and posted the video on Instagram! It very quickly enlisted a large number of views. Well, I am not an ‘Influencer’ so the numbers were not that large. But lo and behold, I got the surprise offer! Here is the video clip that caught attention.

Here is the offer from a Pet Store: “what a lovely pet🥰, we’d be super excited to have you as our brand ambassador, Dm our main page (mentioned in my bio ) to be our brand ambassador, don’t forget to tell them that “Toffy” referred you.🐾” I do not disclose the name of the Pet Store for obvious reasons.

Wow! Who is being invited to being a ‘Brand Ambassador’, the cat Percival or me? I pondered over this for some time. I guess as Percival cannot ‘Dm the main page’ of the pet store, they must mean me! Me a Brand Ambassador for a Pet Store?

Now is this a new career option? I am an Economist by profession. So far the only alternative career option that I thought I could have when the Economist tag failed me, was of a tailor! Fashion Designer, sewing, crafting and recycling, read here of the possibilities. I am really glad that I have this offer! But I must say that I am a little disappointed. If someone wanted to make me an offer of Brand Ambassador, could it not have been a Photography Club for my photos and videos on Instagram @unnijeemol? Or a Fashion Store for my tailoring talents? Or a Travel company for travelogues on my Blog? Well, if wishes were horses beggars would ride! So I am thrilled, thank you Anonymous Pet Store for the offer! Will consider Dm!!