How An Internet Meme Is Helping Find Shelter Dogs Homes

DreamWorks’ newest animated feature, Mr. Peabody and Sherman, hit theaters last weekend. As you’ve probably noticed, most films have intense internet marketing campaigns surrounding their release. Mr. Peabody and Sherman was no different, but there was an added twist – DreamWorks jumped in on the trending #muttbombing campaign.

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An image of a chihuaha ready for adoption, Roscoe, was superimposed in a still from the film and posted on Facebook with the hashtag #muttbombing. But, DreamWorks and Burbank’s Animal Shelter weren’t the brains behind the campaign. That honor goes to Dallas-based digital agency Dieste, who came up with the idea for the #muttbombing campaign for a local Dallas shelter. If you mail Dieste a selfie, they’ll Photoshop one of the dogs up for adoption onto your photo and will use the hashtag.

Dieste came up with the campaign form Dallas Pets Alive as a brand-boosting gimmick. The shelter wanted to engage more on social to help their dogs find homes. Turns out, the combination of selfies and cute dogs was irresistable (go figure!) Within 10 days of launching the campaign, 5 dogs were adopted and 5 dogs were fostered out of Dallas Pets Alive. The hashtag was seen 315,000 times on Twitter within the first 24 hours. And, the hashtag went from 1,500 followers to 3,000 followers on Instagram.

Rescues have been using social media for years, after they caught on to the fact that people love animals and if they just get those adorable, adoptable faces out there, more people are likely to see (and want to adopt) one of the rescue animals. This particular campaign hit the right tone, and shelters across the country started contacting Dieste to get in on the campaign. To date, the #muttbombing hashtag has received 1,400 mentions on Twitter and even received a mention from social media guru Guy Kawasaki.

While selfies might be silly, we can definitely get behind this social media campaign to help find dogs forever homes!

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