In Brazil, 30 million dogs are waiting for a home. The ones least likely to be adopted are the Caramelos, the caramel-coloured mixed-breed dogs so woven into Brazilian street life and culture that the country has its own name for them. They account for the majority of shelter populations. They are 90% less likely to be adopted than a purebred. And they are arguably the most Brazilian dog that exists.
Pedigree and AlmapBBDO decided that the combination was not a contradiction. It was the brief.
Where It Started
The campaign began not in an agency brief but in an Instagram video. Actress, presenter, and influencer Tatá Werneck, who has adopted 12 pets, discovered that her mixed-breed dog Maminha could not be registered for dog shows because she was not a purebred. She posted her outrage publicly. The response was immediate and large. Pedigree saw it, reached out, and built a national campaign around that single moment of public indignation.
Werneck led the campaign alongside celebrities João Vicente de Castro, Alejandro Claveaux, Gabriel Louchard, and Viralatacaramelo, the brand’s existing social media ambassador. The talent roster was assembled not for reach alone but for credibility: these are people publicly known for their relationships with animals, recruited because the campaign’s audience would already trust them on this subject.
What Was Built
The campaign was not a single film. It was a suite of structural changes built around the Caramelo and executed simultaneously.
AlmapBBDO developed a hero film, distributed across cinemas, OOH, YouTube, Meta, and TikTok, that told the story of a Caramelo rejected from a dog show for being mixed-breed and reframed the rejection as a bias worth naming and reversing. The film was the campaign’s emotional anchor.
In parallel, Pedigree commissioned the largest genetic study of Caramelo dogs ever conducted in Brazil, undertaken with DNA Pets across 350 animals, to establish the physical, genetic, and health traits that define the breed that officially has no definition. The Caramelo Kennel Club was founded as a dedicated community for Caramelo owners, providing exclusive content, adoption events, and launch news. The first-ever Caramelo Dog Show took place, putting the dogs that have always been excluded from that format at the centre of one. The Pedigree product packaging itself was redesigned, replacing purebred imagery with photographs of Caramelos, making a commercial product carry the campaign’s argument every time it appeared on a shelf.
Marco “Pernil” Giannelli, CCO of AlmapBBDO, described the creative challenge directly: “Our creative challenge was to make the Caramelo into an emblem of the cause, reframing its image in a positive, impactful light. We want people to see them not just as ordinary dogs, but as a symbol of affection, loyalty, and companionship.”
The Results
The campaign generated 237 million impressions. Brand organic engagement rose 400%. Reactions were 99% positive. Mixed-breed dog adoptions in Brazil increased by 218% in the first month of the campaign. Pedigree sales rose 23.2%.
Rodrigo Alfieri, global marketing manager at Pedigree, summarised what the numbers described: “While awareness of pet homelessness is rising, factors like appearance, age, and coat colour have a direct impact on these animals’ chances of being adopted. Pedigree is a democratic brand, just like the Caramelo, and that’s why we believe that together we can touch people’s hearts and get them on board with the movement to take our beloved Caramelos out of shelters and make them the most-adopted dogs in Brazil.”
The Awards and What Followed
At Cannes Lions 2025, Caramelo won the Titanium Lion, the festival’s highest individual honour and the first Titanium in AlmapBBDO’s history. It was the only Brazilian agency to bring home a Titanium that year. At Cannes Lions 2026, the campaign returned in the Creative Effectiveness Lions category and won Gold, Silver, and Bronze, demonstrating that its business and social impact had continued to compound in the year following launch.
The campaign’s success also generated a sequel. In June 2026, Pedigree and AlmapBBDO launched “Pedigree Mutt,” a broader evolution of the same platform extending the Caramelo’s cultural status to all mixed-breed dogs in Brazil, featuring Ronaldinho Gaúcho and reframing the word “mutt” itself as a term of pride rather than dismissal. The original campaign is no longer just a campaign. It is a platform, and it is still running.
Campaign Name: Caramelo / Pedigree Caramelo
Agency Name: AlmapBBDO, São Paulo / Production: Surreal Hotel Arts / Director: Oriol Barberà
Brand Name: Pedigree / Mars Petcare
Location: Brazil (national rollout across cinema, OOH, YouTube, Meta, TikTok)
