Story highlights
The campaign raised more than $26,000
The photos are of stray cats from two shelters
If your dog travels with you, it might be better to avoid Clapham Common Tube station for the next couple of weeks.
The London subway station is overrun with cats.
They are everywhere – staring at you with their steely cat eyes from giant posters on the wall and from stick-ons on turnstiles.
It’s part of a crowdfunded campaign to replace all ads with pictures of kitties.
The campaign, which began Monday, raised more than ￡20,000 ($26,000) to make 68 ads at the station disappear. In their place are photos of stray cats from two rescue groups, Battersea Dogs & Cats Home and Cats Protection.
The brains behind Citizens Advertising Takeover Service (or CATS) is Glimpse, a new collective with a very simple aim: use creativity for good.
“We tried to imagine a world where public spaces made you feel good,” Glimpse founder James Turner said.
“Instead of asking you to buy something, we’re asking you to think about what’s really valuable in your life. It might not be cats, but it’s probably something you can’t find in the shops.”
Battersea, the rescue group whose cats are among the stars of the campaign, hopes the publicity will result in some adoptions.
“We care for over 3,000 rescue cats a year,” Lindsey Quinlan, Battersea’s head of catteries, said. “So hopefully this campaign will encourage lots more people to visit our centers and consider re-homing our fantastic felines.”
