The Secret of the Forest

Petlove, Brazil’s largest pet ecosystem, exists to make the world a place where every pet can be happier and healthier. In partnership with São Paulo Metro, the company chose to tackle animal abandonment from a different angle: instead of leading with conventional messaging about the issue and the law, the campaign bets on entertainment as the tool to spark reflection and drive behavior change.

The initiative launches with the series “Villains” (“Vilões” in Portuguese), built around the line “Not even the greatest villains abandon their pets,” created by Unboring Company and produced by Never Boring Productions, the agency’s in-house production arm. Developed as animation, the project opens with the episode “The Secret of the Forest”.

The cause grows out of an activist streak that has been part of Petlove since its founding, and of a principle that guides its business decisions: pets at the center of everything. That commitment has already produced several animal-welfare communication platforms, including “Chega de Fogos” (“No More Fireworks”), which raises awareness of the impact of loud fireworks on animals, and “Petlove Não Vende” (“Petlove Doesn’t Sell”), in which the brand took an active stand against the sale of products that harm pets.

“Choosing a light-hearted tone for such an important subject is deliberate: we want to democratize understanding of a serious issue that needs to be discussed widely and responsibly. At Petlove, we work every day to make the world a place where every pet can be happier and healthier, and ‘Villains’ lets us carry that message to even more people,” says Bruno Junqueira, VP of People, ESG and Corporate Communications at Petlove.

According to estimates published by Agência Brasil, the Brazilian government’s news agency, some 30 million animals live in abandonment in the country — one of the highest figures in the world.

Emotion over education - Signed off with the line “Even evil has its limits. Not even the greatest villains abandon their pets,” the series starts from a simple provocation: if even characters famous for being villains care for and protect their animals, what could possibly justify abandonment in real life?

The idea came when Unboring Company noticed that many of the great villains of literature and the oldest folk tales have a pet. “We’re an agency that builds extraordinary universes for brands. Every episode opens in horror mode. In the first one, a cat is dumped on a roadside and the forest seems to close in on it. The twist comes when you realize the witch is there to rescue the animal. And in the end, she gets her revenge on whoever abandoned it — in a fun way,” says Luiz Villano, co-founder and CEO of Unboring.

The episodes connect to form a universe of their own, in which the villains become animal-rights activists. The witch runs a daycare, the vampire keeps a sanctuary, and the characters cross over into one another’s stories.

“I spent years bringing to life a witch everyone thought was wicked, who deep down was fighting for the animals. When the invitation came, it felt like the natural next chapter of that story. The Witch in ‘Villains’ is scary, but whoever she protects is always safe. If even a villain knows that abandoning a pet is not an option, so do we,” says actress Myra Ruiz, who played the witch Elphaba in the Brazilian production of the musical Wicked for a decade. She also stars in one of the campaign’s social-media teasers.

For Wladimir Winter, co-founder and CCO of Unboring, a two-time Emmy Award winner and member of the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, choosing the language of entertainment is what carries the message further. “Cause campaigns usually inform, and information rarely changes behavior. Emotion does. Media buys attention, but it can’t buy sharing. A good story ends up in the family group chat, on your mom’s WhatsApp, with everyone who has a pet at home. That’s why, before being a campaign against abandonment, ‘Villains’ had to be good content. After all, the commitment to a pet doesn’t end when vacation starts — or when a campaign does.”

The look is part of the strategy. Animated in 2D and running over three minutes each, the episodes revive the visual style of 1980s and 1990s broadcast-TV cartoons such as He-Man and ThunderCats. That language speaks to the nostalgia of the audience most engaged with the cause: women over 35 who grew up on those cartoons and share animal content on their social feeds.

A cause that doesn’t end with the holidays - After “The Secret of the Forest,” Episode 2, “Creatures of the Night,” starring a vampire, is slated to premiere in the second half of November. The final two episodes tie into Christmas and the year-end summer holidays, running through Green December (Dezembro Verde), Brazil’s awareness month against animal abandonment. In February, Petlove’s platform continues with a new campaign, keeping the cause on air throughout the year.