Best of CASE District VII Award
 

Institution: University of California, Office of the President

Title of entry: Is Bunny the “Talking" Dog Legit?

About this entry: "Is Bunny the "talking" dog legit?" always aimed to reach two audiences; lovers of the trending "TikTok button dogs" as well as skeptics of these dog's ability to communicate through these buttons. We wanted to refocus the claims of these dog owners to a real scientific study conducted by UC San Diego cognitive scientist Federico Rossano. By highlighting his own initial skepticism and describing the history of animal communication, along with a thorough explanation of his lab's results, we hoped to tell a more complex story. We aimed to keep the video fun and engaging by showing many clips of these "button dogs" throughout. The impact was a widely loved and viewed video with more than 600k views across all platforms, and a video that still performs well almost a year after its release.