Musti ja Mirri: The Making of "Don't Leave Me" Campaign

While Nordic summers are not always particularly hot, dogs with their fur coats are prone to heat strokes even in milder temperatures. Dogs should never be left alone in the car during summer, because the temperature inside a car can get dangerously high even on cloudy days. Even though awareness around the issue has increased, authorities in the Nordic countries still receive numerous reports of dogs left in hot cars every summer.

With their new campaign, the Nordic pet care specialist Musti Group wants to educate both dog owners and passers-by, who might come across dogs left in a car during summer. The star of the campaign is a fully functioning robotic dog, which shows how fast a car turns into a death trap for pets. The robot simulates the symptoms of a heat stroke, and its movements are triggered by the temperature inside the car it’s placed in.

The robot is built by combining 3D-printed parts, fake animal fur and mechatronics. The dog’s pre-coded movements that simulate heat stroke symptoms and triggered by heat sensors placed inside the car. Interactive Inuits’ Lauri Laatikainen, the engineer in charge of the robotics states, that the heat inside the car poses challenges even for a dog that’s not real.

The robot dog tours around Finland, stopping in places where most of the dangerous situations occur; car parks, supermarket parking lots and other places people come by car and might think it’s safe to leave their dog alone for a brief moment. The campaign is supported with nationwide outdoor, radio and social media advertising, and its goal is to encourage people to report any dangerous situations they witness, and most importantly to never leave their dog alone in the car during summer.