Missing Cat, Disappearing Artwork

Thousands of domestic cats disappear every year and the standard Missing Cat poster is a familiar sight on British streets.

We used the familiarity of this medium and created our own ‘Missing Cat’ poster campaign with a difference. It was designed to represent the many Big Cats who unfortunately, once they disappear, will never be seen again.

We swapped the traditional moggy for a very different type of feline: Archie, our affectionately known majestic lion who became the star of the campaign. We then created a poster fit for our king of the jungle which occupied over 260 square feet of ground space in Paternoster Square.

We enlisted credible street artist Dean Zeus Colman to draw our Missing Cat poster. It took over 12 hours to complete and involved over 100 pieces of chalk, eight cans of spray chalk and more than two litres of paint. However, the really clever bit was as the day went on, the poster was slowly and unwittingly rubbed out by members of the public as they walked across the artwork. This created a dramatic and poignant reminder that lions are literally being wiped off the face of the earth and we need to act now before it’s too late.

Archie, the missing cat in question, was also given his own URL - www.savearchie.com - which linked straight to the National Geographic Big Cats Initiative page.

It was important that this activity was more than just a London-based stunt, so a version of Dean’s missing cat poster was recreated and posted on billboards across four key cities; Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester and Edinburgh.

An intensive media relations campaign underpinned all activity including media interviews with National Geographic Explorer Dr Amy Dickman highlighting her own experiences and her research. A time-lapse film capturing the poster creation and people’s reactions was also used as a key media asset.