Dog Trust

Thirty-five years ago, the iconic slogan "a dog is for life, not just for Christmas" was born. Campaign figured that was as good a reason as any to search out the UK’s best-ever dog ad.

Clarissa Baldwin, the chief executive at Dogs Trust, created the charity’s famous phrase. In October 1978, she was working as the head of PR for the body (then called the National Canine Defence League) when she was asked to design a (cheap) campaign to stop people buying and then abandoning puppies. Sat at the kitchen table, she wrote down five or six suggestions, one of which was the enduring slogan.