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Compare two situations we’ve all been in. In the first, you see the most adorable dog walking down the street, and you spend the rest of the day thinking about how much you’d like one of your own (assuming you’re a dog lover in this scenario and not a happiness-hating monster). In the second, you see some volunteers handing out flyers and pamphlets for their organization and you take one to be polite, but forget about it as soon as you stuff it into your bag. Well, this activation uses the first scenario, plus a little bit of clever tech, to make sure the second doesn’t happen.

In its #LookingForYou campaign, volunteers from U.K.-based Battersea Dogs & Cats Home spent the day handing out those pamphlets at Westfield Stratford City shopping centre in London. What the people who took the pamphlets didn’t know is that they contained an RFID (radio frequency identification) tag. Whenever someone carrying a pamphlet walked past one of the many digital out-of-home screens at the centre, whatever ad was currently being displayed would be replaced by one for the shelter, featuring one of its dogs (who was clearly chosen due to his high levels of scruffy adorableness). As they moved around the centre, more screens would display the little scamp, making it seem like he was following shoppers around, before the ad would encourage them to give their pamphlet a second look.

Credits:

Brand: Battersea Dogs & Cats Home
Agency: OgilvyOne UK
Visual Effects: Framestore
Out-of-home Media: Exterion Media
Production: Creation Company Films