BEFRIEND

TitleBEFRIEND
BrandNIKA, A CHARITABLE FUND FOR HOMELESS ANIMALS ASSISTANCE
Product/ServiceSOCIAL ADVERTISING PROJECT FOR SHELTER DOGS SUPPORT
Category B13. Not-for-profit / Charity /Government
Entrant DPG Moscow, RUSSIA
Idea Creation DPG Moscow, RUSSIA
PR DPG Moscow, RUSSIA
Production VERSUS PICTURES Moscow, RUSSIA
Production 2 DPG Moscow, RUSSIA
Credits
Name Company Position
Alena Kremer DPG Managing Partner
Alexandra Shokina DPG Creative Director
Andrey Maltsev DPG Associate Creative Director
Ekaterina Savrasova DPG Associate Creative Director
Oksana Shibanova DPG Client Service Director
Larissa Pshenichnikova DPG Project Manager
Ilya Naishuller Versus Pictures Director
Ruben Adamyan Versus Pictures Producer
Ekaterina Kononenko Versus Pictures Producer
Andrey Krauzov Versus Pictures DOP
Dasha Charusha Versus Pictures Composer

Write a short summary of what happens in the film

Night. We see a nonoffensive homeless guy in the back street, peacefully eating a sandwich. A van stops nearby. The guy tilts his head with a friendly smile and looks at the men who get out of the van and make their way over to him. Suddenly, he notices a strange device in their hands, something that looks like a net. In the blink of an eye, he starts running away through the industrial suburbs of the city. The men chase after our hero until he is completely cornered. He throws the camera a haunted look. VO: I’m a dog. I wanna live. With you. Cut. We see a stray dog in place of our hero. Title: BeFriend. Adopt a shelter dog. The video was shot by famous director Ilya Naishuller starring a well-known Russia actor Alexander Pal.

Cultural/Context information for the jury

In the run-up to the World Cup in Russia, media around the world were flooded with articles furious about the destiny of stray dogs in Russia. In World Cup-hosting cities, massive numbers of dogs were caught and taken to shelters. And shelters could not host them all which literally meant for majority of them to be doomed to euthanasia. Together with charitable fund NIKA and famous director Ilia Naishuller we came up with a social video “I’m a dog” which showed what it would feel for a human to be on the place of a doomed dog. A sign of support with the doomed dogs, the video in just 2 weeks has been viewed 1421257 times and inspired other celebrities join the initiative and take part in the #befriend challenge on social media. As a result we reached 200% increase number of adopted dogs (vs the same period last year).