Amazon's AI tool pairs shelter dogs and cats with adopters as part of the Protect Playtime campaign.

      In summary: Amazon's Brand Innovation Lab, PetIQ's PetArmor brand, and Best Friends Animal Society have initiated a campaign called "Protect Playtime," which merges an AI-driven pet-matching tool on Amazon with videos created from Amazon Nova Reel featuring individual shelter animals to enhance adoptions. This tool handles natural language inquiries to connect potential adopters with suitable shelter pets, and a test event held in Glen Rose, Texas, in February 2026 resulted in 24 adoptions in one day, quadrupling the previous record. Customized video content for each animal will be shared on Prime Video and Amazon Streaming TV ads until July 31, 2026.

      Every 90 seconds

      According to Best Friends Animal Society, a dog or cat in a US shelter dies every 90 seconds, leading to an estimated 400,000 animal deaths in 2025, even though nearly two-thirds of US shelters have achieved no-kill status. The divide between the national aim for no-kill shelters and the reality includes the third of shelters that haven’t reached this status, often due to insufficient resources, visibility, or adoption rates that hinder the ability to rehome animals quickly. Launched on April 9, 2026, the Protect Playtime campaign is designed by PetArmor, Amazon Ads Brand Innovation Lab, and Best Friends to bridge this gap using a combination of AI-enhanced discovery, tailored generative video content, and direct investment in shelter infrastructure. The campaign's name refers to PetArmor's primary products in flea, tick, and parasite prevention and suggests that pet protection begins with adoption rather than treatment. Best Friends collaborates with over 6,000 shelters and rescue groups nationwide, providing the data framework and shelter network essential for the matching tool's functionality. CEO Julie Castle stated, "Best Friends envisions a future where no dog or cat dies in a shelter simply for lacking a safe home." She added, “This innovative campaign will significantly impact the lives of dogs and cats nationwide by providing new ways for people to connect with adoptable pets, and we’re proud to partner with PetArmor and Amazon to realize it.”

      The matching tool and the Glen Rose pilot

      Available at amazon.com/ProtectPlaytime, the AI pet-matching tool interprets natural language queries from potential adopters, including inquiries about size, temperament, energy level, compatibility with children or other pets, and living conditions, to match them with suitable shelter animals from Best Friends’ partner network. This interface aims to reduce the research burden that often hinders or delays adoptions. Prospective pet owners who find navigating various shelter databases and assessing compatibility through static photos challenging tend to abandon the process before making a match. By utilizing Best Friends’ network of over 6,000 organizations, the tool consolidates the inventory that would usually require multiple searches. The campaign team also directly enhanced shelter environments by constructing designated "Protect Playtime" areas at participating shelters, allowing animals to showcase their personalities to potential adopters, addressing the longstanding issue that stressful shelter conditions often hinder adoptability. A Valentine's Day pilot event at Glen Rose Animal Control in Texas in February 2026 tested this integrated approach, improved shelter environments, AI-assisted matching, and localized promotion, resulting in 24 adoptions in a single day, which was four times the facility’s previous record. Kyle Lembke, senior vice president at PetIQ, described the campaign as a natural progression of the brand’s fifteen-year mission. “For 15 years, PetArmor has safeguarded pets against outdoor threats,” he noted. “Now we’re securing their prospects for finding loving homes. By giving adoptable dogs and cats AI-generated animated videos that envision their futures and creating shelter spaces where they can display their personalities, we’re removing barriers between shelter pets and the families ready to adopt them.”

      Nova Reel and the generative video layer

      Amazon's Brand Innovation Lab produced animated generative videos for each participating animal using Amazon Nova Reel, the company's AI video generation model available via Amazon Bedrock. The videos, created from text prompts and images of individual shelter animals, depict each pet in a simulated home environment, helping potential adopters envision the animals in a domestic setting rather than a kennel. Nova Reel facilitates multi-shot video sequences of up to two minutes, leveraging text prompts and optional reference images to create footage deemed suitable for commercial use by Amazon. The Protect Playtime videos will air across Prime Video and Amazon Streaming TV ad inventory until July 31, 2026, and can also be found in PetArmor’s Amazon Brand Store. This production pipeline, which generates a unique video for each adoptable animal instead of a generic creative campaign, wouldn’t have been economically feasible using traditional video production methods; however, Nova Reel enables scalable personalization for the complete inventory of Best Friends’ partner shelters. Beyond the Protect Playtime campaign, Nova Reel has attracted attention due to a lawsuit filed in April 2026, accusing Amazon of training Nova Reel on copyrighted YouTube videos without