Woof in Advertising: KLM search dog is fake

A beagle named Sherlock, in the employ of KLM airlines, is recovering and returning items lost by travelers at an Amsterdam Airport — or so this video would have you believe.





But — no $#@!, Sherlock — the beagle is bogus

.



Once again, advertising geniuses have duped the public, and the media, via the Internet.

I*m sure those geniuses don*t see it that way — just creative license, they*d say — but the story of the little beagle reuniting passengers with their lost items is a tall tale, aimed at giving you a warm and fuzzy feeling when it comes to KLM.





Earlier this week the Dutch airline posted the video on YouTube.





Three days later it had 3 million views. New outlets were writing about the amazing pooch who, through his powers of scent, was reuniting travelers with their lost items.











A day or two later, they were writing about him again — once they realized it was, if not an out and out hoax, a creative stretching of the truth.

The video posted on YouTube carried this description: “KLM*s dedicated Lost & Found team at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol is on a mission to reunite lost items as soon as possible with their legitimate owner. From a teddy bear found by the cabin crew to a laptop left in the lounge. Locating the owners can sometimes be a challenge, so special forces have been hired…”





KLM managed to reach millions with the bogus beagle story, virtually for free — even before it appeared as a paid advertisement.

The advertising agency explained their creative process as follows:





“We were told that the members of KLM*s Lost & Found team sometimes track down passengers before they even realize they*ve lost something,” “We feel they are a bit like detectives. So to illustrate that KLM goes above and beyond for their passengers, we decided to involve a search dog.”

On one hand, you*ve got to admire their ability to get so much ink — I mean so many hits — without spending a dime.





On the other hand, should we really trust a company that*s pulling the wool, or in this case fur, over our eyes?





(Woof in Advertising is an occasional feature on ohmidog! that looks at how dogs are used in advertising. For more Woof in Advertising posts, click here.)













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Woof in Advertising: KLM search dog is fake