AdMiration feature: Chewy’s “Changes”

For this week’s AdMiration feature, we looked at consumer response to Chewy's “Changes” ad — a spot built around the life transitions that turn a household’s routine upside down and how their pets experience them.

Read on to get our 3-2-1 snapshot of the ad (3 facts, 2 learnings and 1 reflection) and learn how their ad was received based on our data.

The ad: Chewy’s “Changes”

The ad opens on someone picking up a large Chewy-branded cardboard box. We’re in the middle of a house move, and the family’s dog watches it all unfold, uncertain and confused by the upheaval around him. He tilts his head at the strangeness of it and the entire scene tilts with him. Wanting to help him settle, the man orders calming treats on the Chewy app.

The changes keep coming. A cat arrives and claims the house as her own, settling into a cat tree and the two animals size each other up. The dog tilts his head again and the whole room leans with him all over again. Chewy has an answer for this too, with virtual vet help on hand for introducing a dog to a cat.

Then there’s a baby on the way and the family finds advice on introducing the pets to a new arrival on the Chewy platform again.

By the end, the dog and the cat are settled side by side and the family is through the other side of it all. The ad closes on the Chewy logo with the words “Food. Meds. Expert care.” as the narrator says: “For life with pets, there’s Chewy.”

3-2-1 snapshot

3 facts

• “Changes” is a strong all-round performer, landing well above the average US ad on its ability to drive both short-term sales and long-term brand equity (Sales Impact: 81; Brand Impact: 84).
• The ad is exceptionally well branded, with Unaided Brand Recall reaching 81% (vs. 70% norm) — one of the ad’s strongest metrics. It also beats the norm on every reach metric we measure (Ad Distinctiveness: 4.0 vs. 3.7 norm; Claimed Attention: 4.1 vs. 3.9 norm; Brand Distinctiveness: 4.0 vs. 3.7 norm; Uniqueness of Brand Impressions: 4.1 vs. 3.9 norm), which means the ad cuts through and stands out.
• People enjoy watching the ad (Enjoyment: 4.1 vs. 3.9 norm) and find it relevant to their own lives (Relevance: 3.9 vs. 3.7 norm).

2 learnings

When your brand is the hero of the story, people come away knowing what problems you can solve for them. Chewy has a lot to get across in 30 seconds: that it sells food and medication, plus it offers expert advice. That’s a feature list and this kind of information usually makes an ad feel long, dry or like a sales pitch. What “Changes” does instead is tell a story pet parents recognize (Relevance: 3.9 vs. 3.7 norm) that lets each part of the offer arrive as the answer to a problem. At the beginning, the move unsettles the dog so the family orders calming treats. Then the new cat and the dog aren’t getting along so they turn to virtual vet help. And a baby is on the way so they look for advice on introducing the pets. Each time, Chewy sets the world right again — the tilting stops and the pets settle. That gives the brand a clear role in the story and it’s why the messages land. Both of them score 4.4 for Clarity (vs. 4.2 norm) and 4.4 for Believability (vs. 4.1 norm). “Makes it easy to get everything I need for my pet” also comes out as the attribute viewers most associate with the brand afterwards (59%). Or as one viewer summed it up: "Everything you need for your animal in one place."

A repetitive visual device can make an ad stand out. Every time one of the pets tilts its head at something it doesn’t understand, the whole scene tilts with it. It’s a simple idea but it gives the ad something recognizable and something people can describe back afterwards. It’s the thing viewers mention most when we ask what they liked in comments like: "It was cute the world changed when the dog tilted his head.” The ad is highly distinctive as a result (Ad Distinctiveness: 4.0 vs. 3.7 norm). It also turns an abstract idea into a visual metaphor: the room tips over because that’s how the change feels from the dog’s point of view. A dog can’t tell us it’s unsettled so the ad shows us instead. It’s what carries the spot emotionally too, with Laughter spiking every time the world tilts. Devices like this have real potential beyond a single spot and it’s the kind of thing brands build long-running campaigns around — it can be something that people recognize across media placements that cues the brand and brings to mind what it solves for immediately, serving to refresh the brand’s mental availability.

1 reflection

Is your advertising built for how people really buy your product?

Most of Chewy’s revenue comes through Autoship, its recurring delivery subscription. This means its customers don’t really shop in the way retail customers normally do — for a lot of households the pet food simply keeps arriving. The moments that matter for the brand are the ones that disrupt the routine — when a new subscription gets started, or an existing one gets upgraded. Those are the moments “Changes” is built around.

The brand also shows up with something different each time and that says a lot about the business. The first thing it offers is a product, the second a service, the third a piece of advice — which mirrors a business expanding beyond delivery into pharmacy and veterinary care. Viewers pick it up, with 50% coming away seeing Chewy as a source of expert pet care advice and 47% as somewhere they can trust. The ad is deliberately building the position the business needs: to be the first brand in mind when a routine changes and trusted enough to sell care as well as kibble.

The question worth asking is: is your advertising aligned with how your customers really buy and with where your business is heading?

About the campaign

“Changes” is the latest spot in Chewy’s “For life with pets, there’s Chewy” platform — a line the brand has been building on since 2024. The campaign is created in-house by Chewy’s own creative team and produced in collaboration with commercial director David Shafei, founder of World War Seven and known for comedic storytelling and character-driven work.

Earlier waves of the campaign were built around pet personalities — Cash the bodega cat, Summit the adventure dog, Homer the homebody, Rex the wrecking dog — with each spot using a different character to spotlight a different Chewy service like Chewy Pharmacy for Homer the homebody and 24/7 live chat for Rex the wrecking dog.

“Changes” keeps that warmth but instead of a personality, it’s built around the big life changes that turn a household upside down. The wider campaign works on the same logic: pet parents have questions and Chewy is the answer.

It also reflects where the business is heading. Chewy has been expanding well beyond delivery into vet clinics, pharmacy and its recent acquisition of Modern Animal — a move the company describes as a step in its evolution into a fully integrated pet healthcare ecosystem, combining care, commerce and services across the pet lifecycle.

Alongside “Changes,” the platform includes spots such as “All Their Favorites,” “Happy,” “Woodie,” “The Answer” and “Wellness,” running across TV, CTV, YouTube, Meta and TikTok, with Spanish-language versions including “Todos sus favoritos” and “El cuidado de tus mascotas.”

A deep dive into the ad’s performance

“Changes” is a strong all-round performer, landing in the top 20% of US ads on both its ability to drive both short-term sales and long-term brand equity (Sales Impact: 81; Brand Impact: 84).

The ad scores well above the norm on every reach metric we measure, which means it stands out and cuts through (Ad Distinctiveness: 4.0 vs. 3.7 norm; Claimed Attention: 4.1 vs. 3.9 norm; Brand Distinctiveness: 4.0 vs. 3.7 norm; Uniqueness of Brand Impressions: 4.1 vs. 3.9 norm).

The head tilt is at the heart of what makes this ad stand out. As strange new things keep appearing in the dog’s life, he tilts his head at each one in confusion and the entire world of the ad tilts with him.

It’s the single most mentioned thing viewers liked, and they describe it as both funny and memorable:

• “It was cute the world changed when the dog tilted his head.”
• “I like the dog tilting the world.”
• “The dog twisting its head to the left or to the right being confused or puzzled and the camera switching everything to tilt makes it amusing and memorable.”
• “The cute dog, the silliness of the head tilting an everything goes sideways.”

Unaided Brand Recall reaches 81% (vs. a 70% norm) which is one of ad’s strongest metrics! The brand is integrated into the ad seamlessly, because it’s the hero of the story. The family is moving house, so they’re surrounded by Chewy cardboard boxes.

Chewy also has a very clear role to play that’s central to the story: every time the world tilts, the brand and its solutions are what sets it right again.

The ad generates an emotional response in line with the average US ad (Overall Emotion: 60 vs. 57 norm; Love: 29% vs. 27% norm), but the second-by-second trace shows certain moments resonating much more than others.

The dog is an immediate emotional driver, with the first Love spike coming in as soon as we meet him. Laughter then builds and spikes every time the pets tilt their heads and the whole scene tilts with them.

Overall, people really enjoyed the ad and related to it (Enjoyment: 4.1 vs. 3.9 norm; Relevance: 3.9 vs. 3.7 norm). They said things like:

• “I love the dog and his family, including the cat. I also love that Chewy was featured prominently and seems to be helping all the pets. It was a funny yet poignant ad that I just love!”
• “How it positioned the actors in a real life scenario that a lot of people go through.”
• “All of it. The pets. The chaos. What Chewy offers. It's a transition period where the family is moving and expecting a baby soon. Love both the dog and the cat.”
• “I liked seeing the pet parents care for their dog through all of their big life changes.”

The ad is also doing an excellent job of getting its messages across. Both messages we tested landed clearly and credibly: “Chewy is there to support pet parents through all of life’s changes” (Clarity: 4.4 vs. 4.2 norm; Believability: 4.4 vs. 4.1 norm) and “Chewy offers everything you need to care for your pet, from food and medication to expert care” (Clarity: 4.4 vs. 4.2 norm; Believability: 4.4 vs. 4.1 norm).

That comes through in what people take away about the brand. “Makes it easy to get everything I need for my pet” is the top attribute viewers attach to Chewy after watching (59%), followed by “offers a wide variety of products” (55%) and “provides expert pet care advice” (50%).

The ad earns that top attribute by demonstrating it throughout. Chewy shows up for a different need each time the family’s world shifts — calming treats when the dog is unsettled by the move, virtual vet help with introducing the dog to the cat and tips on introducing the pets to a new baby.

Here’s how viewers describe it in their own words:

• “How Chewy is a one stop shop for all animal needs.”
• “Everything you need for your animal in one place.”
• “Shows all the different products available from Chewy concerning all things that might relate to your pets environment.”
• “It shows the company is there for every moment.”

Final thoughts

What a lovely piece of storytelling from Chewy! A dog will always give an ad a heartwarming advantage. But what makes this one work so well is the craft around him — a creative device showing us what a dog can’t say and a brand that has a clear role to play.

What did you think? Let us know by interacting with our coverage of the ads on LinkedIn.

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