Best Practices: Dog Lulu becomes a social media star – CIA using digital storytelling

The CIA is known as a top secret government agent, not known for being neither open to the public nor playful, as their tasks include gathering some of the most top secret intel there is in today’s world. But what happens when a dog named Lulu joins the team? A social media sensation!

Lulu wasn’t interested in searching for explosives.
Even when motivated w food & play, she was clearly no longer enjoying herself. pic.twitter.com/puvhDk1tRX

— CIA (@CIA) October 18, 2017

Lulu, a playful dog that was going an intense test to become a certified bomb sniffing dog unfortunately did not pass. The reason? Lulu has other plans in life, and sniffing bombs for a living is not one of them, so he drops out after showing no interest in the activities. The photo of the dog though, somber in it’s silky black fur caught the attention of readers internationally overnight becoming an internet sensation (https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/10/20/16508402/lulu-cia-dog-meme). Thankfully for Lulu she was adopted by her handler and will get to spend the rest of her days chasing cars, playing fetch, and playing in her new home. For the CIA the extra attention has been welcome to show how sometimes serious agencies can still be apart of the social media playground and reap positive feedback.

To learn more about the mechanics around developing a proper social media story with the potential to go viral, contact us at https://ethority.de/en/team/contact/