The archive · Content & Film · Marketing decision · 2021
MK's Chemical stars a realistic animatronic dog in a fast-food love story — D&AD
For MK's Chemical, director Aube Perrie built D as a lifelike animatronic dog, shot on 16mm — the least loyal creature on Earth played dead straight.
Sony Music Entertainment
What it had to solve
MK's Chemical is a house track about lust, infidelity and being bound by one's true nature; the official video needed a story strong enough to carry that pull, and its anthropomorphic dog had to feel emotionally real rather than cartoonish.
How it works
House producer MK released Chemical on 3 June 2021 with an official video that needed to match the track: a story about lust, infidelity and being bound by one's true nature, told through an anthropomorphic dog who falls for a customer at his fast-food job while he is already in a relationship.
Director Aube Perrie and MYND x Wanda built D the dog as a realistic animatronic rather than a cartoon or humanized character. The team said it took about seven weeks to give life to D, and that dogs do not need humanization to show emotions people recognize — the absolute need was to avoid anything too cartoonistic or creaturish. The whole film was shot on 16mm.
The video went out with a single that BBC Radio 1 had crowned Hottest Record in the World, and the animatronic craft became its own story: two making-of films centred on the dog's head. D&AD later archived the film's production design in its awards.
Why it lands
- The irony lands hardest on the real thing: a dog is loyalty, so a dog who cannot keep it in his pants is the sharpest frame for infidelity.
- Realistic animatronics instead of cartoon styling keep the satire believable and slightly unsettling.
- 16mm film grain and a practical creature make the video feel like cinema rather than another CGI dance clip.
- The craft itself became content, with behind-the-scenes films that kept the rollout running.
What it did
The single launched with BBC Radio 1's Hottest Record in the World crown and passed 4.4 million Spotify streams within weeks; the animatronic craft drew two making-of films, and D&AD archived the film's production design in its awards.
What you can take
When a story needs a creature to be both absurd and believable, commit to realism in execution — practical animatronics keep the satire sharp because the audience never stops believing the dog.
Since then
D became the centre of the single's rollout: two behind-the-scenes films about the animatronic build, then Chemical Chase, a web game based on the track, followed in summer 2021 alongside a remix package; D&AD archived the production design in its awards.
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