The Nordics’ leading petcare brand Musti Group launched a campaign warning dog owners to never leave their dog alone in a hot car. The campaign features a custom made robotic dog that simulates the symptoms of a heat stroke. The robot is placed inside a car and its movements are triggered by changes in temperature. The campaign was created by the Finnish agency Erma&Reinikainen, whose previous Musti Group campaign was awarded in Cannes 2024.
While Nordic summers are not always particularly hot, dogs with their fur coats are prone to heat strokes even in milder temperatures. Dogs should never be left alone in the car during summer, because the temperature inside a car can get dangerously high even on cloudy days. Even though awareness around the issue has increased, authorities in the Nordic countries still receive numerous reports of dogs left in hot cars every summer.
With their new campaign, the Nordic pet care specialist Musti Group wants to educate both dog owners and passers-by, who might come across dogs left in a car during summer. The star of the campaign is a fully functioning robotic dog, which shows how fast a car turns into a death trap for pets. The robot simulates the symptoms of a heat stroke, and its movements are triggered by the temperature inside the car it’s placed in.
The campaign was created by Erma&Reinikainen, the Finnish agency behind Musti Group’s awarded Adoption Live campaign that turned Finland’s whole DOOH network into a livestream from the country’s largest cat shelter.
“When it comes to recognising dangerous situations, real life experience is the best form of education. By creating a tangible, cautionary example that people witness with their own eyes, we hope to increase awareness of how and when to act in these situations both as a dog owner and a passer-by,” Aleksi Erma, Creative and Co-founder of Erma&Reinikainen says.
The robot is built by combining 3D-printed parts, fake animal fur and mechatronics. The dog’s pre-coded movements that simulate heat stroke symptoms and triggered by heat sensors placed inside the car.
Lauri Laatikainen, the engineer in charge of the robotics, states that the heat inside the car poses challenges even for a dog that’s not real.
“A car left in the sun can quickly heat up to 80 degrees Celsius, which requires us to cool a compartment of the car to avoid overheating some of the hardware. One can only imagine what a real dog must feel like with its warm fur and no means of cooling itself,” Laatikainen states.
The robot dog tours around Finland, stopping in places where most of the dangerous situations occur; car parks, supermarket parking lots and other places where people come by car and might think it’s safe to leave their dog alone for a brief moment. The campaign is supported with nationwide outdoor, radio and social media advertising, and its goal is to encourage people to report any dangerous situations they witness, and most importantly to never leave their dog alone in the car during summer.
