New Ad Campaign Promotes Animal Adoptions in New York City - Mayor's Alliance for NYC's Animals, Inc. - Working with the City of New York to promote dog and cat adoption and spay and neuter programs to make New York a no-kill city.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Monday, August 8, 2005

New Ad Campaign Promotes Animal Adoptions in New York City

New York, NY – August 8, 2005 – Some New Yorkers will be scratching their heads this week when they encounter the new GoPOSTER ads for the Mayor's Alliance for NYC's Animals. Each of five striking images, clustered in two's and four's on street level poster boards throughout Manhattan and Brooklyn, feature a neon "Vacancy" sign substituting for a cherished pet. The ads pose the question: "Is there room in your life for a homeless pet?"…and offer an answer: "Adopt a Little New Yorker Today."

The campaign, conceived for the Mayor's Alliance by veteran advertising creatives Jay Sharfstein and Chris Brignola of filter advertising, challenges New Yorkers with images of ordinary people in familiar settings, each with a vacancy sign designating a spot that could be occupied by a loving pet. Renowned photographer Phillip Toledano shot the visual images for the campaign.

"We believe the approach we've taken with the campaign, both in its content and the outdoor medium we're using, will resonate with New Yorkers," says Alliance President Jane Hoffman. "We want to help people recognize that their lives can be enriched by sharing them with a companion animal. What's more, we want to encourage people to adopt from a shelter or rescue group instead of acquiring one from a pet store or irresponsible breeder."

The Mayor's Alliance for NYC's Animals and its 85-plus member shelters and rescue groups are seeking to eliminate animal homelessness in NYC by increasing pet adoptions from animal shelters and rescue groups throughout the NYC area. The Mayor's Alliance, in partnership with the City of New York, is working with NYC's Animal Care & Control — the city agency responsible for caring for the city's thousands of stray and abandoned animals, finding homes for those they can, and euthanizing those animals for whom homes cannot be found quickly enough.

Recently endowed with significant grants from Maddie's Fund and the ASPCA, the Mayor's Alliance has committed to end the killing of adoptable and treatable animals in NYC within the next ten years. Among the programs developed by the Alliance to increase adoptions is a series of Pet Adoption Festivals in NYC parks that will continue into October. Three upcoming adoption events are featured in the ads — Queens' Cunningham Park on August 14th, Brooklyn's Prospect Park on August 21st , and Manhattan's Central Park on October 2nd.

The "Vacancy" campaign will run through the first week of October, 2005. The campaign also will include GoCARDS — those "take me" postcards available in racks at many NYC establishments, beginning this week.

Adopt a Little New Yorker Today!

The Mayor's Alliance for NYC's Animals, Inc., founded in 2002 and powered by Maddie's Fund, is a coalition of 85 animal rescue groups and shelters that are working with the City of New York to find homes for every cat and dog in the city who needs one. For more information about the Mayor's Alliance and its Participating Organizations, please visit the Alliance web site at www.AnimalAllianceNYC.org and its adoption web site at www.BigApplePets.com.

Maddie's Fund, also known as the Pet Rescue Foundation, is a $240 million family foundation established in 1999 to help communities throughout the U.S. eliminate the unnecessary killing of healthy and treatable homeless animals merely because they do not have homes. The foundation was created by Dave Duffield, founder and Board Chairman of the Silicon Valley-based software giant PeopleSoft, and his wife, Cheryl, in honor of the beloved family Miniature Schnauzer, Maddie, who died in 1997. For more information about Maddie's Fund, please visit their web site at www.maddiesfund.org.

filter advertising is a full-service agency located in New York. Founded in 2005 by three industry veterans convinced that better work could result from a more streamlined process, filter is committed to servicing their individual clients' needs, not promoting an agency network's agenda. For more information, contact Jay Sharfstein at jay@filternyc.com.

Contact:

Steve Gruber, Director of Communications

Mayor's Alliance for NYC's Animals

Phone: (917) 359-6003

Fax: (212) 591-6383

E-mail: news@AnimalAllianceNYC.org

Web Site: http://www.AnimalAllianceNYC.org

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