If you have a dog, chances are it has already devoured one of your shoes. But behind this fact lies a problem: annually in Brazil, almost 200,000 dogs end up in veterinary emergencies to remove objects.These procedures are complex, expensive, and sadly often lead to dogs' death. According to the publication "Chewing Behaviour In Dogs – A survey-based exploratory study," from sciencedirect.com, shoes are among the most recurring items in this type of accident.

From this data, Brizza Arezzo requested an awareness campaign on the subject. Our delivery went beyond a campaign: we attacked the problem with a solution. With the support of PEDIGREE®, we developed a flip-flop that, besides being rejected by dogs for having the most bitter taste on the planet, sheds light on the problem.

Inedible Flip-Flop came to change the way shoes are produced. A flip-flop made to raise awareness among humans, dogs, and the industry.

This idea unites two popular brands to raise awareness about dogs ingesting foreign objects.

Arezzo: the largest fashion women's footwear brand in Latin America, which has innovation and experience as business pillars and seeks to expand its Brizza brand in new points of sale.

PEDIGREE®: with all its affinity and care for animal nutrition, brought us security for the development process.

By combining expertise, the project aims to influence the shoe industry for animal causes. With over 400 million pairs of flip-flops produced in Brazil in 2022 and a dog population of 58 million, this initiative was born to save animal lives. The ultimate goal is to make the application of denatonium benzoate mandatory in any object that poses a risk to animals' lives. The project goes beyond a sales campaign and represents a combination of private sector interests and political efforts.

This idea came about through a partnership between two well-known brands: Arezzo, the largest women's footwear brand in Latin America, and PEDIGREE®, a brand focused on animal nutrition. The goal was to create a project that could save the lives of dogs, who often ingest harmful objects to their health, such as flip-flops. The solution was the development of the Inedible Flip-Flop, a shoe made with denatonium benzoate, the most bitter substance on the planet, to discourage dogs from chewing on it.

The campaign strategy focused on raising awareness about the issue and promoting the use of denatonium benzoate in all objects that pose a risk to animals. The target audience was anyone who has a dog in the test market region of São Paulo, Brazil. The approach was to present the problem as unknown to most people and highlight the importance of addressing it to save animal lives.

To make a flip-flop with a repulsive taste, we included denatonium benzoate in the production of the flip-flop rubber, the most bitter compound on earth. Although it may sound like a "simple" solution, this project took 7 months from conception, research, testing, prototyping, and distribution to the test market.

About design: although flip-flops are popular elements, Arezzo is also known for being a vanguard brand in the fashion universe. Therefore, the execution of this project is a co-creation, where the agency created the solution and the concept, and Arezzo signs the design of the flip-flop prints - conceived from a trend of letterings and illustrations created manually.

From these brushes, we drew the first concept that connects to the campaign: the flip-flop packaging, which are dog-shaped boxes. After all, nothing is more appropriate than being able to take the flip-flops out of the mouths of animals from the first bite.

This launch provoked the merger between a footwear brand and Brazil's most growing consumer universe, pets, starting a synergistic movement capable of significantly changing the numbers in the coming years - not only of the brand but also of lives saved.

The product pre-launch showed that more than acceptance was the surprise of people discovering a problem that they had previously ignored.