Influencer
Jordan Howlett Stars in Tidy Cats’ Crime Procedural and Makes the Case for Episodic Brand Deals
Tidy Cats has launched a three-part crime procedural on social media, casting content creator Jordan Howlett as a rookie officer alongside actor and comedian Kumail Nanjiani. Jordan, who has more than 50 million followers across platforms, argues the format gives brands something a single sponsored post cannot.
“You lose yourself in the narrative, and you almost forget, like, ‘Oh, this is all for a really good product,’” he says.
The “Special Litter Unit” (S.L.U.) premiered October 1 on Tidy Cats’ social media channels, with new episodes rolling through the week. A one-day pop-up experience, “Litter Crimes HQ,” ran at 45Grand in SoHo, New York City, the following day.
The content Jordan makes is built to travel. Known online as “Jordan the Stallion,” he is a food and comedy creator from California who started posting on TikTok in 2018 and built his name on fast-food hacks and a signature move: throwing his glasses after an impressive bite. Tidy Cats cast him as the rookie officer alongside Kumail, placing his social-native sensibility inside a scripted, crew-backed production built around the brand’s Performance+ litter line.
Tidy Cats Brought Jordan Into the Creative Before Filming Began
The opportunity arrived through Doug Landers of Greenlight Group, Jordan’s manager, who brought him a pitch for a crime series dedicated to solving “the most heinous litter crimes.” Jordan, who has three cats at home, says the framing required no suspension of disbelief. “If you’re a cat parent, this is more of a documentary than anything else,” he says.
The creative process set the project apart from a standard brand brief. “They really asked my opinion,” Jordan says. “How would you feel about this? How would you feel about going along with this?” He describes the experience as empowering.
His character, the rookie officer, tracked closely with how he moves through unfamiliar situations. “I’m always anxious, like, ‘Should I take notes? Is this okay?’ That’s me normally,” he says. The glasses throw in episode three, a signature move from his regular content, was his own suggestion to the production team rather than a scripted beat. Once on set, Jordan says the production exceeded what the early conversations had suggested.
In a Three-Part Format, the Brand Brief Fits Inside the Narrative
Jordan’s case for episodic branded content is structural. “It’s no longer just brief and then do the brief and add some creative bits in there,” he says. “It’s all a big creative function and you can fit the briefing within it. So it’s a different structure.” In a single post, the product leads. Across a series, the product travels inside the story.
He compares the viewing effect to cinema. When an audience goes to a good movie, he argues, they surrender to the story and only realize how deep they were in after it ends. The “S.L.U.” series runs this logic across three episodes, each investigating a distinct litter offense: odor, weak clumps, and tracking. Tidy Cats Performance+ is the investigative tool in each case.
Jordan sees the structure as an advantage for brands. When the narrative carries the product, the creative process becomes, in his words, “easier when you’re rolling with the overall idea.”
Jordan’s Partnership Checklist Starts With Whether the Audience Will Care
Jordan evaluates brand partnerships through a single filter. “The audience is what brought you here,” he says. “You want to make sure you’re always of service to them.” In practice, that means the audience’s stake in the content is evaluated before the size of the deal.
He says both parties to a creator-brand deal are working toward the same outcome. “I want to give you the best product that can possibly be served,” Jordan says. “No one’s in this partnership trying to make it worse.” The starting point, he argues, is recognizing that alignment.
His checklist runs from there. He asks whether the audience will care, whether the content is entertaining enough to hold up on repeat viewing, and whether, when it’s done, he’d be satisfied with the work. “We want to make sure it’s entertaining, it’s good, it can be repeatable,” Jordan says. “You want to be able to look back at your work and be like, ‘Yeah, this is fun.’”
When brands lead with what they want to pay rather than what they want to create, Jordan notes, the result can feel hollow.
Working Alongside Kumail Offered Jordan a Lesson in Professional Improvisation
Jordan’s usual process is solo. He films on his phone, talking to himself as the only audience. The “S.L.U.” set required a different mindset: he immersed himself in the fictional unit, treating Kumail as his captain rather than as a colleague. Without managing his own camera, he could give as many takes as the production required.
One practical change was the elimination of post-shoot editing. In his regular celebrity collaborations, Jordan says he might shoot five to seven minutes of usable footage and face the anxiety of cutting it to a minute. On the “S.L.U.” set, the production team handled that selection. “I could just give them all the takes that they possibly need, and then they can obviously have the wisdom to figure out which one works,” he says.
The highlight was the unscripted exchange between scripted lines. Jordan highlights Kumail’s ability to field any improv prompt and return it effortlessly. “It was a masterclass,” he says of the back-and-forth. One exchange, in which Jordan accused Kumail’s character of stealing his cologne, made the final cut. “I know you’ve been stealing my cologne. I can smell it,” Jordan recalls, describing it as one of his favorite moments from the shoot.
Jordan Sees Creator Talent Moving Both in Front of and Behind the Camera
The “S.L.U.” project is, for Jordan, one example of a pattern he expects to continue. “I’d love to see a lot more creators behind the camera as well,” he says, adding that creators bring considerable talent to writing, production, and directing.
Jordan believes the creator-brand model has expanded far beyond where it started. “It’s clearly expanded past just brief, tell the audience what you want, pay you some money,” he says. What’s taking its place, he argues, is a model where creators contribute across more of the production process, a shift he sees as making the partnership structure more sustainable on both sides.
“The amount of talent that I see in these creators across the board, whether it’s comedic or just their point of view, it’s so amazing,” Jordan says. “I think the world should see it.”
The three-part “Special Litter Unit” series is available on Tidy Cats’ Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube channels.
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