Drivers who find themselves out on the roads when this happens may have no idea what to do. The Arizona Department of Transportation seeks to solve this with… a meme-kitty?
In a short video on the department’s Instagram, the “kitty” explains ADOT’s “Pull Aside. Stay Alive!” program. This program instructs drivers who encounter a haboob to pull over and park their vehicle, turn off their lights, put on their emergency brake and stay in their car with the seatbelt on while they wait for the storm to pass.
Ugh, but it sounds so boring when you put it like that.
Instead, the department’s communications team tapped into the grammatically incorrect “explained by cats” trend on Instagram Reels and TikTok to do the job. The trend uses an automated voiceover and clip art of cats and other images to explain a vast number of topics. The topics range from why God doesn’t answer my prayers, mortgages, why height matters to women, bouldering, fibromyalgia and linear functions — to name a few.
The video is a part of ADOT’s effort to find new ways to “reach out to audiences and meet them where they are, on their own terms,” said Lauren Chapman, ADOT’s digital communications supervisor. In this case, they’re trying to inform Arizona’s Gen Z population about dust storm driving.
“Kitty turn on the news,” an automated male voiceover says as a photo of a teary-eyed kitten sits on a white background with a vintage TV. “Kitty see a dust storm coming,” the voice continues. “Kitty not go outside. Kitty not drive.”
The clip-art creations and simple verbiage continue throughout the video created by Alexis Potter, a public information officer for the department. The automated voice explains that in a dust storm, visibility can quickly drop to zero, “making it hard for Kitty to see other driver kitties and hazards on the road.” So if kitty is on the road and can see a dust storm coming, they must “pull aside, stay alive.”
“Kitty pull off the side of the road. Kitty take paw off brake. Kitty put car in park and set emergency break,” the voice says as associated images flash on screen. “Kitty turn off all the lights so driver kitties not use Kitty’s car as beacon and crash into Kitty. Then, Kitty stay in car and wait for storm to pass.”
Despite its silliness and simplicity, it's “just the latest installation of how we try to make sure people are ready if they encounter a dust storm,” Chapman said. And it seems to be working, at least according to the comment section.
“This is actually so informative,” an Instagram user named Jenna wrote. “No one ever explained why you’re supposed to turn your lights off in a dust storm LOL.” Jenna wasn’t alone. User Aecian even said that she “learned more from these kitty videos than I ever did in Arizona public schools.” Commenter Miko chimed in, writing, “Thanks kitty.”
The comment section also abundantly called for the social media team to get a raise and for more kitty PSAs. Chapman did say that her team briefly discussed a return of the kitty, but no definitive plans have been made yet.
“If this post performs well, there is a chance kitty may come back,” she said. “Maybe teaching another set of driving tips. We’ll take some suggestions, if anyone has some.”
