#CatsNotAds delights commuters

Clapham Common Underground station replaces all its adverts with pictures of cats.

With the number of stray cats reportedly growing year by year, it’s starting to become a problem. Cats need loving homes, so the people at Citizens Advertising Takeover Service, (CATS for short, obviously) aka #CatsNotAds decided to do something, admittedly rather outlandish, about it: replace every single advert at Clapham Common Underground station with a picture of a cat.

In short, if you’re a cat lover, Clapham Common Tube station is the place to be. There are 68 cat pictures in total dotted around the London station, featuring models from nearby Battersea Dogs and Cats Home as well as Cats Protection. There’s even one poster that shows pictures of cats sent in by members of the public.

But all of this wasn’t cheap. Glimpse, the collective behind CATS and who describe themselves as ‘a group of friends who want to use creativity for good’, raised £23,000 on Kickstarter to give the station its new look.

The campaign’s objective is, in their own words, ‘[to] help people think a bit differently about the world around them, and get inspired to change things for the better.’ It is also a way of raising awareness for homeless cats and hopefully inspire people to adopt a feline friend in need.

Organiser James Turner said to the Evening Standard: “We hope people will enjoy being in the station and maybe think a bit differently about the world around them.

“Instead of asking you to buy something, we’re asking you to think about what’s really valuable in your life. It might not be cats, but it’s probably something you can’t find in the shops.”

So what do yo think? A welcome break from the usual ads you see on the Underground? Will you think about adopting a cat now?