look at my cat

This is why 'Look at my cat' posters are plastered all over Toronto

When people feel blue, a funny cat photo can help lighten the mood, or at least that's the idea behind a bunch of Look at my cat posters found around Toronto lately.

The posters are plastered around Koreatown, Kensington, Chinatown, Cabbagetown and Midtown, and most feature a large photo of a cat and the phrase "LOOK AT MY CAT" on the top and another sentence at the bottom such as "Isn't she neat?" or "How great is this cat?"

The poster campaign started in November as the work of three people, called Mean Bo Bean, who wish to remain anonymous. A spokesperson for the group tells blogTO she does street art under another name but wanted to do something to cheer people up this fall.

"My sister and her husband, they were feeling down," she says. "It's that time of year, it's been a rough year, it's getting darker."

So she thought making street art would be a way to relax and get their minds off things.

"And I know that one thing when people are feeling down that makes them feel better is always talking about their pets."

She decided to create posters featuring their cats.

"I printed up some posters, with their pets on them and some funny little things and we went around and put them up and it really did cheer everybody up," she says. "The plan was not just to cheer them up but to have people walking down the street and see something unexpected and stupid and silly and laugh."

The idea is a just simple and fun way to lighten people's days.

"Everybody wants everybody to look at pictures of their cats, right?" she says "And now we're forcing people on the streets to look at them."

The group has done about 15 different versions of the posters with photos of their cats or the cats of friends. There are now copycat (pun intended) posters around the city too.

The group plans to continue making the posters in the new year, and spread out to more neighbourhoods around the city.

"So just the response we've gotten from people saying how much it made them in a better mood that day or something," say the creators. "It's totally worth continuing."

Lead photo by

Mean Bo Bean


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