Every year, animals are given as Christmas presents. But after the holidays, a lot of them become unwanted and get abandoned. Because then people do realize what it takes to have a pet at home and to reconcile it with their own lives. That’s why the animal rights organization PETA asked us to create an awareness campaign.

We picked up the perfect world of lights and decorations and began a silent protest in the middle of this blissful pre-Christmas atmosphere: distressing installations, representing every single abandoned animal. Their moving and at the same time distressing mood could be felt even from the distance.

The aim was to make people aware of the fact that many animals get abandoned after they are given away as Christmas presents. Our strategy was to confront the people with the truth in their daily life: when they walk their dog, shop for groceries or are out for a run.

In the form of handcrafted installations, we abandon illuminated dog silhouettes at parking lots, parks, under bridges, next to constructions sites, train tracks and other deserted places. And at those places, where crowds of people usually spend their time before the holidays: on shopping promenades. In combination with our powerful message “Animals are not Christmas gifts” those installations act as a word of warning for all those in search of Christmas presents.

Out of these installations we developed an artistically staged film that conveys a depressing, emotional and stirring mood. In addition, we created six iconographic motifs for print and online. The campaign not only raised awareness in Germany, but also in countries such as the United Kingdom, Czech Republic, Poland, Romania and Russia – where the topic also was widely shared and discussed in social media. Due to the strong emotionality and stirring effect of our execution, the motifs and film will be used by Peta in the following years as a basis for communication in the pre-Christmas period.