Hundstallet took every dog photo off its site so Swedes adopted personality first

Dogs were increasingly chosen on appearance, mismatching homes and flooding back into the shelter system; Hundstallet needed adopters to change how they choose, not just hear that they should.

Adopt blind: remove every photo of adoptable dogs from the shelter's website and replace them with text profiles on personality, needs, energy and lifestyle fit

Campaign 'Dog Love Should Also Be Blind' ran across digital, social, print and OOH while the shelter's own listings went photo-free — borrowing Netflix's Love Is Blind as a real-world behavioural experiment in choosing without seeing.

During the campaign, clicks to the expression-of-interest form rose 16%, site traffic rose about 40%, and measured PR reach grew an estimated 30-40%; Hundstallet reported more relevant, better-matched applications, taking quality over quantity as the real win.

When Love Is Blind dominated social feeds, Hundstallet, the Swedish Canine Welfare Association, saw a format it could actually use. With BBDO Nordics it created 'Dog Love Should Also Be Blind': every photo of adoptable dogs was removed from the shelter's website and replaced with text-only profiles centred on personality, needs, energy levels and lifestyle fit.

The backdrop was a growing problem: one in three Swedes says social media influences their choice of dog, and appearance has become a deciding factor at adoption. Looks-first matching leads to poor fits, returns, and dogs re-entering the shelter system — and the number of dogs arriving at Hundstallet was already rising, with mismatched adoptions a common cause.

The campaign turned a cultural conversation into a working adoption tool: no film re-enactment, just the shelter's own listings rebuilt as a blind test. Art director Isabelle de Susini framed it bluntly — when people break up, both parties move on, but when someone breaks up with a dog, that dog often ends up at Hundstallet.

The behaviour moved. Clicks to the expression-of-interest form rose 16% during the campaign, site traffic rose about 40%, and measured PR reach grew an estimated 30-40%. Head of communications Johnny Kroneld's verdict: the applications were far more relevant and better matched — quality, not quantity, was the clearest measure of success.

It intervenes in the decision moment itself — the adoption listing — instead of buying media that talks about the problem.

The cultural borrow is structural, not cosmetic: removing photos is exactly the show's premise applied to a real marketplace.

The numbers prove the counterintuitive bet: less visual information produced more engagement (16% more interest-form clicks), not less.

Success is defined as match quality — applications that stick — which is the metric that actually reduces returns and re-sheltering.

Borrowed formats work as interventions, not parodies: rebuild the actual product — here, the adoption listing — so the campaign changes behaviour instead of just commenting on it.

As of April 2026 the campaign had run across digital, social, print and OOH with the photo-free listings live during the push; Hundstallet reported better-matched applications as the outcome, with no long-term figures yet published.