Pedigree's fetch toys threw 'happiness' away so dogs could bring it back

Reinforce the positive effect dogs have on humans — many Brazilians living with depression feel whatever they've lost will never come back — and create more awareness of the importance of adopting a dog.

Fetch toys printed with the words love, happiness, life and hope: when a person throws 'happiness' far away, their dog brings it right back.

An animated short told a poetic story, with post and animation by Lobo; a line of fetch toys emblazoned love, happiness, life and hope went out to influencers and people recently through a difficult experience, so their dogs literally brought those words back.

A simple analogy that made the adoption case physical: every throw and retrieve enacted what a dog returns to a person's life, backed by Waltham Centre findings that pets benefit health, reduce stress and improve seniors' quality of life.

In June 2019 Pedigree Brazil, with creative development by AlmapBBDO, launched a campaign encouraging dog adoption by drawing a parallel with the most common game between a caretaker and their pet: throwing something for the dog to fetch and bring back.

The context was Brazil's depression statistics — the WHO puts it at 5.8% of Brazilians — a state where it is common to think life has no meaning and whatever has been lost will never come back. The campaign's answer: many of those ready to give up on hope eventually find love and happiness brought back to them in a very simple way, the presence of a dog in their lives.

Alongside an animated short telling a beautiful, poetic story — animation and post by Lobo — the initiative created a line of fetch toys emblazoned with the words love, happiness, life and hope, sent to influencers and people who had recently been through a difficult experience. Whenever one of them threw 'happiness' far away, their faithful dog brought it back.

Pedigree Brazil marketing director Gabriela Faria noted that adopting is an act of shared love, citing Waltham Centre for Pet Nutrition studies showing pets benefit health, reduce stress, improve senior citizens' quality of life and help children's development.

Fetch is the one game every dog owner already plays, so the metaphor needed no explanation: throw something away, the dog brings it back.

Printing the toys with abstractions — love, happiness, life, hope — turned a game into a demonstration of what dogs restore to people.

Seeding the toys with influencers and people recovering from hard times made the stories real rather than acted.

An animated short gave the idea a poetic register that respected the subject of depression instead of joking with it.

The most familiar gesture between person and pet can carry the whole argument: turn a game everyone knows into the proof of what adoption gives back.

The animated short and toy line ran as Pedigree's adoption campaign in Brazil, with Pedigree seeking to create even more awareness of the importance of adopting a dog by showing how much goodness dogs bring to human beings' lives.