Staffies. They're Softer than you think

Today Battersea Dogs and Cats Home launched their Staffies. They're Softer than you think campaign, by paying a visit to Parliament, accompanied by seven Staffordshire Bull Terriers, one of which was knitted and stuffed. The knitted Staff is the face of this campaign, featuring prominently on the website and in mail-drop pamphlets (the first time I've heard of Battersea conducting mail-drops).

I mentioned the need for counter-images of Stafforshires a little while ago, and I've been thinking about it ever since. The knitted image forms part of this counter-culture, and although it's difficult to predict how effective it will be, I like it. The image was created by James North at marketing company Meteorite who have previously turned out work for the likes of Expedia, the Royal Mail and Blackberry. It's pretty clever, because it gets away from the stigmatised photographic imagery of Staffies and re-contextualises the dog, with a subtle reference back to the days when the Staff was still known as the 'Nanny dog'. Yes, it's neotenic. But it forms part of a, hopefully, larger collective of imagery that re-defines what it is to be a Staffordshire, and the more diverse we can get the better.

I was at a lecture on honey bee behaviour the other day, when the lecturer mentioned that it is almost never possible to change people's minds with words, but it is possible to change their minds with images. Let's undermine the slobbering, fearsome media Staffie, and get some more Staffordshire art out there.