Smalls Turns ‘cat’ Into A State Of Mind With New 360° Campaign

US cat food brand Smalls is taking a decidedly broader view of feline culture with its largest campaign to date, positioning ‘cat’ not simply as an animal but as an attitude.

Developed in-house, in partnership with production company Chico Studio and photographer Paul Yem, Is Cat eschews a single tagline for a flexible language system designed to work across multiple formats and locations.

By filling in the blank space that begins the phrase ‘___ is cat’, the campaign reframes everyday behaviours, items and cultural references in a way that speaks directly to cat people. For example, ‘Solitude is cat’ and ‘Read receipts is cat’ sit alongside more playful propositions such as ‘A dirty martini is cat’ and ‘Irish exiting is cat’.

The idea moves beyond the familiar visual and verbal tropes of pet advertising, instead presenting cat ownership as shorthand for a particular worldview. If you’re independent, selective, quietly confident and unapologetically yourself, you’re more catlike than you might think.

According to research conducted by Smalls, the number of US households with cats has risen from around 27 million in 1996 to 49 million in 2025. That’s a lot of moggy mouths to feed – and a huge business opportunity for the brand, which since launching in 2017 has promised to elevate the modern cat’s lifestyle through ‘human-grade’ nutrition.

Is Cat runs all this month across New York, with hand-painted murals, billboards and wheatpaste installations, while some out-of-home activity will continue into October.

Smalls will also bring the campaign to life through a one-night-only, invite-only exhibition in New York, hosted by artist and cat parent Chloe Wise, where the campaign creative will be treated as art pieces and interactive elements in their own right.

smalls.com