Over 3000 pets are abandoned in Dubai every year - which is the same number as abandoned cars left across the city. We used the very visible problem of abandoned cars in Dubai to raise awareness of our ‘invisible’ abandoned pets’ problem.

We created the illusion that these abandoned pets were trapped in the abandoned cars to get people’s attention and make them realize how real the problem is.

We located these cars across key locations in Dubai and fixed them with motion sensor devices. These devices produced loud sounds of pets crying when people walked within a 3-meter radius of the vehicle. Then, when they investigated we hit them with our message using stickers on the cars with real abandoned pets. The social experiment was filmed with hidden cameras and showcased online.

In just one week, we got free media attention from National news & radio channels.

The online film got more than 500.000 views and over 6.000 shares, driving 50.000 new visitors to the 38smiles website and Facebook page. (And still growing).

Over 85% of passerby reacted and got our message.

And most importantly, we put this problem in people’s faces giving the abandoned pets a second chance.

It’s relevant because we created a disruptive moment to people in key locations in Dubai to hit them with our message. This campaign was a new media communication with our target to get their attention, raise awareness and make them take action about the abandoned pets problem.

We found out that the number of pets abandoned every year is the same as abandoned cars.

Why there are abandoned cars? One of the main reasons is because under Sharia Law, which is observed across the Middle East, non-payment of debt is a criminal offence. As the UAE has no bankruptcy laws, there is no protection for those slipping into debt, even accidentally. So people prefer to leave the Emirates before being blacklisted.

3,000 pets are abandoned every year in Dubai; unfortunately it’s not a visible problem that we see every day. 38smiles – a non-profit animal rescue group in Dubai, wanted to raise awareness of the increasing number of pets left behind, and get media’s attention with a very limited budget campaign.