Cross Shinjuku Vision turns its billboard into a 3D cat that goes viral worldwide

In July 2021, Tokyo's Cross Shinjuku Vision — a three-floor curved LED billboard with 4K resolution and speakers, positioned across from Shinjuku Station's east exit — started screening a giant, hyper-realistic calico cat between its ad slots. The operator created the cat to introduce the screen's new 3D (anamorphic) display technology to the city: rather than a client campaign, the content was the medium demonstrating itself, with the cat waking at 7am each morning and going to sleep at night when the screen shut down at 1am.

The cat behaved like a resident, not an ad. It appeared in three scheduled modes — a 'morning' cat at the top of every hour, a 'talking' cat several times an hour, and a 'goodnight' cat half an hour before close — meowing, yawning and waving its tail at pedestrians. Cross Shinjuku Vision published the screening schedule and ran a YouTube livestream of the screen, turning a billboard into followable, repeatable content. Within days the cat was covered by CNN, the New York Times, USA Today and countless social accounts, and the operator extended its appearances because demand was so high.

The effect was to make the medium itself the destination: visitors came to Shinjuku to wait for the cat, and the screen's fame became its product. The format then spread — the same screen hosted 3D spectacles for Nike, Pokémon GO, Doraemon, YEEZY GAP and Final Fantasy XVI, imitators such as Shibuya's 3D dog appeared, and anamorphic '3D billboards' became a global out-of-home wave within two years.