Prepare For A Furry Takeover In Times Square

The billboards of Times Square are iconic (though for the life of me, I've never been able to understand why). But this month, for a few minutes every night starting at 11:57 p.m., instead of the usual ads playing across the screens, Times Square billboards will play a video of a cat drinking milk. And no, it's not trying to sell you anything. It's just a cat drinking milk. Adorable, right?

The video is part of the Times Square Alliance's ongoing Midnight Moment project, which plays a video on 15 billboards at the famous intersection every night in the three minutes before midnight. Last month, they provided a concert for dogs. This month, it will be a cat drinking milk.

As any New Yorker will tell you, Times Square is one of the most frustrating, stressful places to find yourself, no matter the time of day. There are always roughly 1,000 tourists per square foot (not an exact measurement — that's just what it feels like), the street performers and the crowds around them are everywhere, people constantly leap out at you trying to hand you a flier for their club, valuable sidewalk space is taken up with vendors selling souvenirs, and the lights from the billboards themselves — which are supposedly the attraction of this place? — are enough to give you a headache. Like I said, it's all very stressful.

But if there's anything that might help with that, it's a cat video.

While cat videos might seem like a silly Internet phenomenon, science has shown that watching videos of cats doing cute things can help reduce your stress levels. So posting a video of a cat drinking milk in one of the most stressful locations in New York City seems like a really nice thing to do, when you think about it.

So what do you think, fellow New Yorkers? Is this video enough to help you get through any unfortunate Times Square experience you were unable to avoid? Well, if you find yourself there at 11:57pm anytime between now and Feb. 29, it doesn't hurt to find out.

Images: Fotolia; Giphy