This Hilarious Dog Adoption Campaign Points Out the Perils of Alternative Pets

A hilarious new campaign from Brooklyn-based dog shelter Sugar Mutts avoids the heartstring-tugging approach common to the category, and points out the perils of adopting other pets because you thought a dog would be "too much responsibility." There's the little girl, seen here, whose parents got her a hermit crab instead of a dog. It became her best friend-- until it died. As did the next one, and the one after that. There's also the woman who got a bird, but now feels permanently guilty about it being in a cage; the man who got boring stick insects; the girl who got a salmonella-carrying turtle, and the guy who's terrified his boa constrictor might escape. The tagline in each is "Just get the dog." The spots were directed by new director Sara Shelton, who tells Creativity: "There are already tons of campaigns encouraging people to adopt a dog instead of shop for one, so we decided to try something different, and talk to people who are actually even easier to convince to adopt: people who already want to but for some reason or another just haven't taken the leap yet. Then all we'd need to do is just nudge them a little to, you know, stop messing around and just get the dog." She adds: "There's an old Ron Swanson line I love from 'Parks and Recreration': 'Don't half ass two things. Whole ass one thing.' So this idea of "half assed pets" kept making us laugh. The thought of people trying to fill the dog void with something "easier" like a turtle, only to end up with a pet that has a ninety year life expectancy and feels no love towards them whatsoever.... that felt rich. Because when put like that, you can't help but think wow, what a horrible life decision. They really should have "whole assed one thing" and gotten the dog."

This Hilarious Dog Adoption Campaign Points Out the Perils of Alternative Pets

Featured Stories