The untapped media of Fortune Cats within the majority of shops across Asia was used to create a relevant message to pet owners.

Fortune Cats are lucky charms/talismans that are believed to attract good luck and fortune for its owners in Asian cultures. Thus, it’s very common to find one on display in stores, restaurants and other businesses.

To highlight the excess weight of a common pet, Hill’s transformed the highly identifiable Fortune Cat with a gigantic hippo – an animal commonly understood as obese. All the while, calling out the need to ‘Bring Your Cat Back’ to label the problem behind this transformation. The exaggerated metaphor creates a visual tension which draws the viewer to take a second look – the same action they need to do with their own pet.

Leveraging on the high volume of Fortune Cats across stores, Hill's swapped out the Fortune Cats with hippos to help amplify the message to store-goers that their pet might be overweight. The sculpture was further supported by tactical outdoor and print to activate pet owners into taking charge of their pet’s health and weight. In order to make the idea come to life, this Fortune Cat placement in vet offices and pet shops was identified as a media opportunity to attract our audience in a situationally relevant context. The cat was fattened and transformed into a hippo to help pet owners see pet obesity. To retain the semblance of a Fortune Cat, this rendering kept all sensorial and tactile elements - from gold color, design, texture to the structural fiberglass form.

This creative strategy to transform known pet forms into obese animals was central, from idea to execution, and ultimately impacted the media output. The Fortune Cat is used as a gentle reminder to take a second look at their own pets’ weight. The proliferation of Fortune Cats not only created valuable interaction with people but at the same time brought out Hill's brand mission of “to help enrich and lengthen the special relationship between people and their pets” to life.