Amongst all the companion animals, dogs have long been the most popular member of typical Japanese household for decades, which were shockingly reported to slide down to the second place in population by 2017.

Why have people become less interested in dogs? When it comes to have dogs, people tend to spotlight more on what they need to give to the dogs - caring, feeding, walking, taking to the vets, etc. For Mars, waning interest in pets in Japanese society is crucial, not only because pet care operation forms its core business, but also Mars firmly believes in the value of pets in the society.

Dogs were always the ones being photographed. What if they take photos of the family they live with? Here is the debut of dogs as “PhoDOGrapher”. Under a collaboration of MARS Japan pet food brands, this project was released for a national “Smile Day” on Feb. 5th.

With this idea of “phoDOGrapher”, we created a short movie content featuring three actual families with their dogs, and released it on the day that people become most conscious about smile - the National Smile Day.