Celebrity Endorsements and Social Media Become Campaign Catalysts
Every year dogs perish in unattended, hot cars. Dogs Today, a magazine in the UK has launched a “Don’t Cook Your Dog” campaign, which has gained a large following due to the potency of the campaign, celebrity endorsements and social media endeavors.
The need for a fresh campaign was identified shortly after the most recent tragic deaths of two UK police dogs. The tremendous public anger was transformed into something positive. Editor of Dogs Today magazine, Beverley Cuddy together with designer Judith Broug honed a concept which hit a chord with dog lovers worldwide.
News of the campaign quickly spread via social media and was even backed by Twitter supremo Stephen Fry who “retweeted” how people could get their own posters and stickers. The passion of pet lovers on social media gave birth to this campaign and things picked up when Stephen Fry highlighted it to his 2.98 million followers.
Celebrity endorsements from the likes of Victoria Stilwell, Jilly Cooper, Antony Worrall Thompson, Allen Parton (Founder of Hounds for Heroes), Peter Neville (dog behaviorist), Richard Allport (Vet) and Patrick Burns (famous blogger) followed. “We’ve been inspired and delighted by the support we've had from charities like Dogs Trust, RSPCA, National Animal Welfare Trust , Wood Green, Blue Cross and organisations like the Kennel Club and online retailers Mutley & Mog,” says Cuddy.
One of the novel concepts in this campaign is that the public doesn't pay for stickers. “We reckon that stickers freely given will reach many more people and the more messages people see the more chance there is that we'll prevent future tragedies,” says Cuddy.
Dogs Today is a small independent publication and could only fund printing the first 50,000 stickers. With the help of a PR company that agreed to work pro bono, this account managed to negotiate a deal with a major supermarket chain. The need for stickers increased. The team reached out via their Cold Wet Nose blog and Twitter and amazingly raised the money in time from a mixture of charities , dog organizations and one doggie business.
This is a unique opportunity for everyone to pull together as one to stop something fixable. If you would like to get involved in any country around the world as this is a global problem and campaign, email beverley@dogstodaymagazine.co.uk
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