The archive · Brand & Identity · Marketing decision · 2021
Whiskas makes Shelter Sounds music so anxious shelter cats get adopted, not put down
Whiskas and AMV BBDO made a playlist of music composed to calm anxious cats, then put it in shelters and vets so unadoptable cats could be rehomed.
Whiskas
What it had to solve
Whiskas exists to make all cats purr more, yet many anxious cats end up in shelters and are put down when they are deemed too anxious to be adopted. The brand wanted its expertise to change those cats' fate rather than just advertise to owners.
How it works
Whiskas's purpose is to make all cats purr more, but many anxious cats end up in shelters, and cats deemed too anxious to be adopted are put down. Rather than talk about that problem, the brand built something shelters could play to fix it.
AMV BBDO created Whiskas Shelter Sounds, a branded playlist using composition techniques scientifically proven to calm anxious cats. Whiskas commissioned a musician to compose music that mimics the comforting sounds cats recognise from being in the womb, and the tracks were played to shelters and veterinary clinics across the world.
The reported effect was operational: 25,000 anxious cats calmed a week, rehabilitated so they could go on to loving homes. The music worked where the brand mattered — at the moment a shelter decides whether a stressed cat is adoptable. D&AD's awards archive records the work.
Why it lands
- Music composed for cats' own hearing addresses the actual cause — anxiety — instead of asking adopters to take a risk on a stressed animal.
- The womb-sound idea gives the science a tangible origin story shelters, vets and the press can repeat.
- Putting the playlist inside shelters makes the brand useful at the exact moment cats are judged adoptable, so Whiskas earns the adoption rather than just awareness.
What it did
The playlist calmed an estimated 25,000 anxious shelter cats a week, rehabilitating them so they could go on to loving homes instead of being put down. The work is filed in the D&AD awards archive.
What you can take
Solve the brand's social problem with the brand's own medium: compose functional music only a cat-food maker has reason to make, and let the product itself do the rehoming.
Since then
Shelter Sounds was played to shelters and veterinary clinics worldwide, with the campaign reporting 25,000 cats calmed a week and rehabilitated toward loving homes. That figure comes from the campaign's own archive entry, so the documented takeaway is the mechanism: a pet-food brand commissioning music for the species it feeds, deployed where anxious cats are about to be judged unadoptable. D&AD files the work in its awards archive.
Sources
spotted an error? The archive wants to know.
Your turn
You just read one. Describe the brief you are staring at, and see who has been given the same problem.
Free account · 3 free questions · no card