History Main / PhotoOpWithTheDog

* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'': ''Literature/WyrdSisters'' sees the pretender king of Lancre, Duke Felmet, shoring up an unsteady Kingship by parading the three most prominent Witches in the Kingdom and declaring to the assembled populace that he ''must'' be the rightful King if the Witches are here, at his side, self-evidently supporting him as King. He then goes on to praise their sterling personal qualities. To which Granny Weatherwax hisses "You've gone too far this time!"

* In ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'', Vince of the Vindicators tells Morty that their making him an honorary Vindicator was this, specifically calling him "the learning-disabled kid we do photo-ops with!" To be fair to him, he was in the midst of a panic attack and probably not thinking rationally, but [[EvenEvilHasStandards even Rick]] gives him a [[DeathGlare dirty look]] when Vince says this.

->''"And our little girl Tricia, the six-year-old named it Checkers. And you know, the kids, like all kids, love the dog and I just want to say this right now, that regardless of what they say about it, we're gonna keep it."''
-->-- '''UsefulNotes/RichardNixon'''

* The page quote comes from Richard Nixon's famous "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Checkers_speech Checkers speech]]". In 1952, Nixon was the Junior Senator from California, and was being accused of impropriety regarding funding and political gifts. In the nationally-televised speech, Nixon denied having accepted anything (except of course the dog Checkers) and laid out the details of his family's finances. The speech led to an outpouring of public sympathy and support, and spared Nixon from being dropped as UsefulNotes/DwightDEisenhower's running mate in that year's Presidential election.

* Heinemann from ''Anime/{{Monster}}'' tries one of these after his staff fails to save the city's mayor. The [[CreepyChild dog]], however, doesn't take kindly to being used, and [[spoiler:kills him]].

* A brief portion of the VillainSong in ''WesternAnimation/TheLorax'' shows the Once-ler in a photo op with an adorable bear cub.

* In ''Film/{{Annie|2014}}'', Stacks is running for mayor, and his campaign manager sets one of these up for him early in the movie: feeding the homeless and reminding everyone that he's local. It backfires when he takes a bite of mashed potatoes that disgust him so much, he ''spits onto the homeless man.'' When he wanders away from that event in shame, he manages to pull Annie out of the street before she's hit by a car, which happens to get caught on camera and saves his reputation. Which gets the manager thinking, what's better than a photo shoot? ''Adopting'' the dog!

** Forms part of a story arc in ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueUnlimited'': Lex makes multiple shows of [[FalselyReformedVillain putting supervillainy behind him]] to focus on bettering mankind, none of which {{Superman}} buys for a second, culminating in the building of a state-of-the-art housing project for the underprivileged. When Supes overhears Lex whispering to an assistant about "activating the device", his x-ray vision finds an unknown machine buried under the apartment buildings, which he promptly tears down in his attempt to get at it before it can be turned on. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Turns out it was just a new kind of generator, which would have provided clean energy to the whole project.]] Superman is [[WhatTheHellHero publicly shamed]] and his confidence shaken... [[spoiler:[[BatmanGambit which was Cadmus' aim all along.]]]]

[[quoteright:350:[[Franchise/{{Superman}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/photo_op_with_the_dog.jpg]]]]

*** Wolfram & Hart (a parody of monolithic law firm Jacoby & Meyers) throws a fund-raider gala to raise money for a youth shelter. Naturally, it is a scam, but Angel and his cowboy friend manage to swindle all of the cash out from under them just like the Series/{{Maverick}} Bros. ("Blood Money")

* In ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'', Vince of the Vindicators tells Morty that their making him an honorary Vindicator was this, specifically calling him "the learning-disabled kid we do photo-ops with!" To be fair to him, he was in the midst of a panic attack and probably not thinking rationally, but [[EvenEvilHasStandards even Rick]] gives him a [[DeathGlare dirty look]] when Vince says this.

This is when a character makes a huge show of the petting act, in order to help the character's image. The act can sometimes be faked, but usually it's genuine, even if it's a meager act.

A subtrope of PetTheDog and SisterTrope to WeCare, PoliticiansKissBabies. Contrast WhatYouAreInTheDark. It may overlap with RichKidTurnedSocialActivist.

* ''Literature/{{Archvillain}}'': Mighty Mike makes a big show of saving people and preforming heroic deeds on live T.V. Slightly played with in that Mike really is a good guy, he just wants to be sure people know he is.

* Shogun [[HistoricalDomainCharacter Tokugawa Tsunayoshi]] of the ''Literature/SanoIchiro'' series was born in the Year of the Dog, which he takes as a sign he should protect all dogs by passing laws preventing any one from harming them. However, he has no qualms about ordering OffWithHisHead to any person who even slightly opposes him, he deems dangerous, or that his manipulative council [[ExtremeDoormat convinces him]] into executing. His RealLife counterpart acted in a similar fashion.

* ''ComicBook/{{Transmetropolitan}}'': To demonstrate how unhinged the Smiler is, Fred Christ recalls an occasion where he tearfully told reporters his daughter's cat had been run over that morning and use the sympathy vote to win (in fact, he'd snapped the cat's neck himself). He uses this tactic every time, be it with pets or his charismatic and actually good campaign advisor.

** In another, Flack has just learned why Mac is working a specific case.

* Kitaoka Shuuichi (Kamen Rider Zolda) from ''Series/KamenRiderRyuki'' often does this.

A subtrope of PetTheDog and sistertrope to WeCare, PoliticiansKissBabies. Contrast WhatYouAreInTheDark. It may overlap with RichKidTurnedSocialActivist.

* The official ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' book has individual photos of all the principal personnel at the end, all wearing the same tweed jacket, and all posing with the same Golden Retriever.

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