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  • Writer's pictureCaitlyn Mendonca

LEAP 4: Super Shelter Pets

Instagram Page: https://www.instagram.com/saveasuperpet/

I chose to base my campaign of the “Super Shelter Pets” campaign on DoSomething.org. The campaign encourages people to bust myths about shelter pets and take pictures of their shelter dog with a superhero cape. For my campaign, I wanted to focus on more than just dogs and to showcase currently adoptable dogs, cats, bunnies, etc. My goal is to bring awareness about the number and variety of homeless animals available for adoption in the U.S. and how the public can help save these animals lives. So, I created the #SaveaSuperPet campaign to encourage others to share their stories about their shelter pet and to give adoptable pets a voice. I chose this issue because it means a lot to me to see homeless animals find their forever home. I work in a pet store and I often hear the concerns people have about adopting a shelter pet and I thought I would help break the stigma with my campaign.

The problem that needs to be addressed is that more than 2.7 million animals are euthanized every year because they were not adopted. By raising awareness through the #SaveASuperPet about the reality for homeless animals nationwide. I decided to compose Instagram posts showing pets who were rescued from shelters and pets that need to be rescued. Each post would have the pet’s story and then a fact about shelter animals. What would distinguish these posts from others is the photo frame I created. To create the photo frame, I asked friends I knew who had adopted pets to send me pictures of them with their pet. And then using Photoshop I made a frame that was a white bar at the top and white bar at the bottom and the text at the top says, “Save a” and then the bottom says, “Super Pet!” I made it so the S’s were Superman S’s.

There were a few propaganda techniques I used to appeal to my audience. The first most important one is activating strong emotions. By showing pictures of animals and their owners I hoped to activate joy. Then, as they read the caption which included their story and a fact about shelter pets I hoped to activate compassion. I knew when creating this campaign, I could one of two ways in which emotions I hoped to evoke. I could have evoked sadness or compassion and I learned from Ryan Holiday that sadness would not be as effective. In his book Trust Me I’m Lying he said, “Sadness, like what one might feel to see a stray dog shivering for warmth or a homeless man begging for money, is typically a low-arousal emotion.” (Holiday, 2012) So, because of that I figured it would be best to avoid creating content that would evoke sadness from the viewers. Although, my main focus was to evoke compassion from the viewer but, I utilized sadness to an extent by telling the stories of the pets in the captions of the photos. I also made sure to end each caption with the #SaveASuperPet.

When creating my infographic, I wanted the viewer to learn as they followed along. To begin with I identified the problem and gave some statistics to show the scale of the issue of overpopulation in shelters and the growing number of animal euthanizing. Following that information, I gave the viewer four different ways they can help the cause. I began with the most tangible thing someone could do which is donate money or supplies to local no kill shelters. Helping them with the day to day expenses allows them to provide better care for these animals while in their possession. I also told people to donate their time because no kill shelters often cannot afford to hire employees and rely mostly on volunteers so that is another way to help. The last two options for helping I put in my infographic were to adopt a pet yourself instead of purchasing one when you are looking to get a pet and to encourage others to do the same. I included that to help encourage others to do the same you should share your own stories of shelter pets by using the #SaveASuperPet and photo frame I created. I chose to create a photo frame because visuals make for strong propaganda. Helene Joffe mentioned in “The Power of Visual Material”, “Visuals force people to engage with their own emotions...To look is also to be brought into a new relationship with the object of one’s vision, and perhaps, thereby, to overcome one’s disgust and fear regarding it,” (Joffe, 2008). I thought by making a standard visual tied to my propaganda message it would build the audiences relationship with my cause.

Over the course of this semester this class has opened my eyes to what propaganda truly is and by be being able to identify it I have been able to create some myself. I think my biggest takeaway from this course is that propaganda can be a positive thing. The only way a stigma can be ended is by sharing stories and using propaganda to do that would be a powerful thing. That’s why in my campaign I based it on sharing the stories of adopted shelter pets. Edward Bernays said, “Only through the active energy of the intelligent few can the public at large become aware of and act upon new ideas,” (Bernays,1928). The goal of my campaign is to have others join the movement and get my message to spread and help lower the number of animals euthanized every year.

Works Cited

Bernays, E. (1928). Propaganda. Brooklyn: Ig Publishing.


Holiday, R. (2017). Trust Me, I’m Lying. New York, NY: Penguin Random House LLC.


Joffe, H. (2008). The Power of Visual Material: Persuasion, Emotion and Identification. Los Angeles, London, New Delhi and Singapore: Sage.


Pet Statistics. (n.d.). Retrieved May 5, 2018, from https://www.aspca.org/animal-homelessness/shelter-intake-and-surrender/pet-statistics


11 Facts About Animal Homelessness. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.dosomething.org/facts/11-facts-about-animal-homelessness


Pets by the Numbers. (n.d.). Retrieved from

http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/pet_overpopulation/facts/pet_ownership_statistics.html


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