A dog is locked in a car in Finland visibly suffering from heatstroke, in petcare brand, Musti Group’s, summer campaign by Finnish agency, Erma&Reinikainen.

It’s a distressing sight for passers-by but no dog was harmed in the making of the campaign. The dog is a robot. Its pre-coded movements, that simulate heat stroke symptoms, are triggered by heat sensors placed inside the car responding to temperature changes.

The campaign warns dog owners never to leave their dog alone in a hot car. While Nordic summers are not always particularly hot, dogs with their fur coats are prone to heatstroke even in milder temperatures. 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.

“When it comes to recognising dangerous situations, real life experience is the best form of education. By creating a tangible, cautionary example that people witness with their own eyes, we hope to increase awareness of how and when to act in these situations both as a dog owner and a passer-by,” stated Aleksi Erma, creative and co-founder of Erma&Reinikainen.

The robot dog is touring Finland, stopping in places where most of the dangerous situations occur, such as car parks and supermarket parking lots. 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 never leave a dog alone in the car during summer.

Erma&Reinikainen was also the  agency behind Musti Group’s awarded Adoption Live campaign, that turned Finland’s whole DOOH network into a livestream from the country’s largest cat shelter. The world’s first fully live-streamed outdoor campaign aimed to solve the problem of abandoned cats in Finland, where over 20,000 cats are abandoned each year. The nationwide campaign allowed people to begin their pet adoption process via the billboards.