In the spotlight one day and forgotten the next, circus big cats often face a chilling fate once their performing days are over. That stark reality inspired PPK’s hauntingly elegant campaign for Big Cat Rescue—featuring a bullet presented like precious jewelry—which earned a coveted Platinum in the 2025 Graphis Advertising Awards. By exposing the tragic retirement these majestic creatures too often receive, PPK and Big Cat Rescue remind us that real change begins with awareness.

By: Michael Schillig, Creative Director & Copywriter, PPK

PPK was honored to receive a prestigious Platinum Award in the 2025 Graphis Advertising Annual competition. But what made winning Graphis’ top achievement even more rewarding was that it was for a nonprofit organization, Big Cat Rescue, whom we are really passionate about. 

For more than 20 years, we’ve been doing work for Big Cat in order to help them accomplish their longtime mission of safeguarding the world’s exotic wildcat species—both in captivity and in their natural habitats. Over the past three decades, Big Cat Rescue has been one of the largest accredited sanctuaries on the globe for exotic cats. In the process, they’ve provided homes for over 200 abandoned, abused, and orphaned big cats, including lions, tigers, and many other species. 

Big Cat’s wide-ranging support has touched many animals’ lives, as they’ve sought to make people aware of the cruel abuse and injustices they face. Like, for example, those exotic cats who become too old to perform in circuses in various places around the world and often don’t get to experience the retirement that they deserve. Telling this particular story in a really provocative way actually became our assignment. 

We came up with this compelling poster in order to show the tragic fate that awaits some retiring circus cats. We wanted to help Big Cat Rescue educate people on the devastating truth and portray what can happen to big cats once they lose their value in the eyes of some exploitive, unscrupulous owners. Sadly, there is no tracking of how many ultimately end up being killed and sold for their valuable fur, bones, and other parts on the black market. 

We felt a responsibility to communicate this message in a powerful, thought-provoking manner that viewers couldn’t help but notice. That’s when I came up with the idea of a lavish jewelry box containing something totally unexpected inside—a shiny bullet. My partner on this project, Javier Quintana, then further played up this intriguing twist by using a classic storybook-inspired layout with elegant typography. 

We thought the shocking dichotomy of a bullet disguised as a precious retirement gift would catch people’s attention and stimulate more talk and discussion regarding this important matter. Ultimately, our goal was to entice people to visit BigCatRescue.org to find out how they can help big cats and alleviate their suffering and death. 

Our client, Big Cat Rescue, believed this poster would have a strong impact and lead to more awareness, sympathy, and support for these circus cats. In fact, it was so well-liked and appreciated by Big Cat that we also produced an award-winning radio spot for them based on a similar retirement gift concept. This enabled us to reach even more people and further bring this life-or-death issue to the forefront.

PPK’s Platinum-winning creative team of Michael Schillig and Javier Quintana have been with PPK for 19 and 16 years, respectively, and get the most satisfaction in their careers through helping nonprofit organizations, such as Big Cat Rescue. PPK itself was established in 2004 in Tampa, FL, and is one of the Southeast’s most decorated independent advertising agencies. They were founded on the belief that sound, strategic creative strategy and communications plans coupled with true partnership and client collaboration will always deliver results. Regardless of the category or brand, PPK helps businesses overcome any challenge and takes them to another level.

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Check out more of our Advertising 2025 winners on our website!