Fireworks are enjoyed by people all over the world, as they are have become a perfect way of celebrating special events. Aside from being really cool from a visual point of view, fireworks can also be a source of fear, both for humans and for animals, mainly because of the high levels of noise. Although the low explosive pyrotechnic devices sound like gunfire, people have learned how to manage them. Not the same thing can be said about animals. Especially dogs.

Concerned about this problem, Dhélet Y&R agency from Buenos Aires wants to raise awareness of the damage fireworks can cause on mankind’s most favourite pet — dogs. With this issue in mind, Y&R Argentina recently released a new campaign inviting people to listen to pyrotechnics and to see what it’s like to be in a dog’s head during the New Year’s Eve show.

Dhélet Y&R, in partnership with dog shelter Zoobrevivientes, created a fake campaign asking people if they want to try to be like a dog for a short period of time, and if so, the participants had to put on a dog head. Nothing unusual happened until that point, but what people in the video didn’t know was that the dog mask had hidden speakers, so they could hear the sound of fireworks like dogs would. This means that the mask played the sounds 7 times louder for human ear to hear the difference. As the sound became unbearable, no participant managed to stand the fireworks’ noise more than 5 seconds.

With their sensitive hearing, dogs are extremely vulnerable during fireworks shows, and according to PETA, after a firework event, animal shelters report an increase in numbers of lost pets. With this ad, both contributors are trying to convince people to take a better care of their pets, by avoiding the use of pyrotechnics materials.

Being a real problem for the animals, there are other campaigns that fight against the use of fireworks: Ban the Bang! – a campaign that aims to protect the animals and communities from the damages fireworks can trigger; or more recent Pet-A-Thon that took place in Manila, Philippines, and tried to convince people not to light up fireworks during the New Year’s Eve. Also, there is an online petition that wants to ban the sale and use of fireworks in UK.

This issue is not backed up by many campaigns, but there are other advertisements that share different types of issue concerning animal’s rights. All of these campaigns try to remind us that animals have feelings too, and they are not supposed to suffer. Unfortunately, many people don’t realize that pets are for a lifetime, and not only for a few days.

Credits:

Creative Agency: Dhélet Y&R

ECD: Martin Nino Goldberg

Creative Directors: Ivan Zimmermann/ Benjamin Tornquist/ Federico Aubone

Creatives: Santiago Narvaja / Alex Sinmaleza

Account Director: Luz Illescas

Production Company: Cronos

Director: Lujan Islands