The archive · Advertising · Marketing decision · 2022
La SPA's Adopt A Mod put real shelter cats in Stray — D&AD filed the work
When Stray made a fictional stray cat famous in 2022, La SPA modded the game so players met real abandoned cats waiting for adoption.
La SPA
What it had to solve
Every year in France 15,000 cats are abandoned and struggle to survive, and La SPA, the country's main animal-protection NGO, wanted people to meet them. Stray, one of the most popular video games of 2022, told a stray cat's extraordinary journey — but it was unrealistic, and that gap was the opportunity.
How it works
Every year in France, 15,000 cats are abandoned and struggle to survive. Meanwhile Stray, one of the most popular video games of 2022, had made a fictional stray cat the hero of an extraordinary journey — one that was, by design, unrealistic. La SPA, the main French animal-protection NGO, spotted the gap between the fantasy and the real thing.
The NGO modified the game's gameplay to create #AdoptAMod, which it described as the first mods making gamers play the real life of stray cats. La SPA recreated 3D models of abandoned cats waiting for adoption and sent the mods to streamers, letting a game that was famous for its fictional cat put actual shelter cats in front of players.
Casual players then started to download the mods and experiment with the new gameplay. The work was recognised in the D&AD Awards and filed in its archive, where it stands as an example of a charity borrowing a beloved game world to give a real problem a playable form.
Why it lands
- Stray's audience already adored a fictional stray, so the campaign handed that existing love a real animal to attach to.
- Making players live the true stray experience turns distant sympathy into first-person understanding of abandonment.
- Each 3D mod is a specific shelter cat waiting for adoption, so a download is an encounter with an individual, not a statistic.
- Seeding the mods through streamers put the campaign in front of casual players inside the game culture itself, with no conventional ad break.
What it did
Casual players downloaded the mods and played the true stray-cat experience, and the campaign was recognised in the D&AD Awards and filed in its archive.
What you can take
Take the fictional story an audience already loves and let them play its true version: experiencing a real shelter cat's life inside a beloved game makes the cause tangible in a way no appeal can.
Since then
The Adopt A Mod campaign ran in the wake of Stray's 2022 popularity and entered D&AD's awards archive as a documented example of charity creativity meeting gaming culture. The archive entry itself describes the core move: borrowing a beloved game world so players could experience a real problem in playable form.
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