BBDO NY: The dog that brought out the good in George Washington

In October 1977, during the Revolutionary War, commander-in-chief of the British Forces, General William Howe, lost his dog during the Battle of Germantown. It made its way into George Washington’s camp. Washington returned the dog to Howe with a letter, which has been kept in the Library of Congress ever since.

It’s a perfect story for Pedigree’s Feed the Good, whose theme is that dogs bring out the best in people. BBDO New York has recreated the story in a two-minute film with Biscuit Filmwork’s Noam Munro.

The ad, General Howe’s Dog, “directly reflects the core of our Feed the Good campaign, which is that universal truth that dogs bring out the good in us, and that our job at Pedigree is to bring out the good in them,” stated Craig Neely, vice president-marketing for Mars Petcare.

“This has been such a great platform for us to bring a variety of diverse creative to life. The story shows that the universal truth that I mentioned is just as true today as it was more than 200 years ago during the Revolutionary War.”

BBDO’s Feed the Good campaign has been running globally since 2015, with real life stories included from throughout the world.

And the presidential election gave Pedigree a perfect opportunity to give the campaign a topical asset in December last year:

Credits:

Agency: BBDO New York

Chief creative officers: David Lubars & Greg Hahn
Executive Creative Directors: Greg Ketchum & Tom Godici
Senior creative director: Greg Gerstner
Creative director: Banks Noel
Copywriter: Kevin Mulroy
Art director: Bianca Guimaraes
Head of integrated production: David Rolfe
Executive producer: Diane Hill
Head of music production: Rani Vaz

Senior account director: Sally Nathans:
Account director: Elizabeth Kelberg
Account executive: Michael Miles
Group planning director: Annemarie Norris