Founders Turns NYC Trash into Fashion with the ‘The Ratvertising Collection’

A fresh new campaign hits the streets of New York City, featuring the city’s imperfections: notorious rat infestations, trash, and soaring rent prices. In a guerrilla “The Ratvertising campaign", led by a mascot-like figure called “RONY” (Rats of New York), the collection aims to turn the negative conversations surrounding the city into wearable items for sale. 

The campaign features posters and billboards showing merch items from the recent drop from welovenyccollection.com including, but not limited to: rat collars, trash bag tote bags, rolling papers and mini purses. Each poster has a New York attitude with headlines such as, “Textiles imported from a corner near you (referring to the trash tote).”

The campaign also hits topical and controversial subjects such as Mayor Adams’s “War on Rats” and rat birth-control: “Sure our apartments may be tiny, our rents may be sky high. But show me another city that has rats on birth control” (mini purse) and “For Mayor Adams’s arch nemesis” (rat collar). 

You can catch the tongue-in-cheek wild postings in SoHo, The Lower East Side, Meatpacking District, Bushwick and Williamsburg.

As part of the 2.0 of this collection, the design team is getting ready to drop a second collection that will feature “Sh*t Shields” for shoes, Flood Suits for the never ending rain the city has been facing, and Defeated Red Socks as a nod to our enemies up north; amongst other items. 

The Ratvertising Campaign was created by Founders, an independent advertising agency.