In Sheba's New Ads, Cat Owners Are Allergic to Cats

Eleanor, Devonte, don’t cuddle that kitten! You’re allergic to cats!

They snuggle with the little hairball anyway in AMV BBDO’s new campaign for Mars’ Sheba cat food. Things go about as you’d expect. Still, the humans look happy, despite all the swelling and tears.

They’ll be OK. Probably. (Actually, they’re actors. The cat’s real, though.)

Launching this week to introduce Sheba Perfect Portions Wet Kitten Food, the work acknowledges that 1 in 4 cat owners are allergic—but love their pets so much they’d never dream of giving them up.

Creatively, it’s a concise approach that somewhat subverts category tropes and benefits from simplicity. A sappy song (that’s an original from Finger Music) and tabby time herald a stuffy-nose, puffy-cheek reveal. What else could you ask for? A sneezing fit or dead faint would’ve been a step too far.

Videos will run across digital and social, plus 100 OOH screens near pharmacies in NYC.

When agency creative directors Polina Zabrodskaya and Andre Sallowicz first considered the idea, “Our immediate reaction was, ‘This is brilliant! There’s no way we can make it.’ And that, in our experience, is a sure sign of something special,” they tell Muse.

“We extensively researched what real cat allergies look like and made sure we portrayed the horrible (and hilarious) reality as accurately as we could,” they say. “All the characters in our campaign are based on photos of real people with cat allergies.”

Requisite cute ending: “One of the kittens was even adopted by a member of our team who is also allergic. Our conclusion? Humans are weird, and cats are our masters.”

Click the images to enlarge:

CREDITS

Client: Mars Pet Nutrition
Brand: Sheba
Campaign title: You’ll Do Anything For a Kitten
Client name: Fernando Silva, Liz Franks, Bernardo Simoes and Corinne Cordell
Creative Agency: AMV BBDO
CCOs: Nicholas Hulley and Nadja Lossgott
Creative Directors: Polina Zabrodskaya and Andre Sallowicz
Creative Team: Rachel Tweedy and Jamie Chang
Agency Planning Team: Phoebe Fielding, Kerrie Boyes and Lola Neves
Agency Account Team: Alice Lindsay, Richard Mitchell, Poppy Wilson and Laura Balfour
Agency Producer: Lindsay Hughes and Kieran Sadler
Art Producer: Sophie Alliott
Agency Designer: Marion Rossignol and Mario Kerkstra
Media Agency: EssenceMediacom
Production Company: Biscuit Filmworks
Director: Angelo Cerisara
Production Co. Producer: Tom Ford
Editor: Amzek Vladislav 
Post-production Company: No. 8
Post-production producer: Glen Percival 
Grade: Tim Smith
Audio Post-production: No. 8
Sound designer: George Castle
Photographer: Sam Gregg
Producer: Sylvie Champenois @ Picture Club
PR Agency: Weber Shandwick USD