We came across some information that the last President who did not own a pet ended up being impeached. We also know that at the time, our current President Donald Trump did not own a pet. Therefore, we figured that since the last President without a pet got impeached we wanted everyone to adopt all the pets before President Donald Trump could – hinting that if he remained without a pet… he might end up getting impeached. Our brief was for National Adopt a Shelter Pet Day. We looked for an idea that would reach everyone. Our objective was to increase pet adoption across the US using political humor. No budget – pro-active idea. Total cost of production was under $10K. National scale. Social posts, print, OOH in NYC and FL. Earned media across various publications.

We launched a political campaign to coincide with National Adopt a Shelter Pet Day, turning one of President Trump’s infamous comments into a hashtag: #grabapuppy. We encouraged people to go grab a pet from a shelter before President Donald Trump did, to increase his chances of being impeached. The effort was comprised of presidential campaign-style posters, stickers, buttons, print ads, digital billboards on highways, social posts and all kinds of political merchandise, just as if it were a campaign.

Anyone can adopt a pet, so we wanted to reach as many people as possible. In a country that’s split in two (Trump haters and supporters) we wanted to create a piece that would give both sides something to talk about. Our main goal was putting pet adoption on the map, and raise awareness about the importance of pet adoption in a way that’s relevant and engaging for people. The social platforms helped us spread the message, first through PETA’s websites and social channels and then on newspapers and digital news sites.

We partnered with MotorNiveo, a famous illustrator from Brazil, to craft the original art for each poster. Each illustration was based on a real dog that PETA had for adoption at that time, while the designs of the posters were based on political posters from political campaigns between the 50s and 70s. A select number of posters were created using silk screen technique, then sent to PR agencies and influencers. The social posts based on the posters were spread across PETA’s websites and Social Channels. There was a big debate about dog adoption in social media, and we helped “#NationalAdoptAShelterPetDay” to become trending topic in Twitter on the day of the launch. The results helped us put PETA in the No. 1 place in terms of organic content for an NGO* during campaign times.

During the campaign, PETA was the No. 1 NGO in the US in terms of Organic Content.

More than 32,000,000 impressions. Total impressions for the brand increased by 170% during campaign times.

On Facebook, the campaign added a 27% brand lift vs. previous year. After the campaign, engagement on PETA sites remained high and higher than pre-campaign levels.

PETA’s campaign was significantly efficient (actions taken by each impression). Our campaign reached a 2.5 efficient ratio while it was live. Which is twice as much as that of the Pet Care category 0.95 and top brands like Pedigree 1.38.