Lennu was often present in official appearances by president Niinistö.[4] The dog received international attention in
social media when the American journalist
Kelly Weil published two pictures of the dog taken by
Heikki Saukkomaa on
Twitter in February 2017.[5][6] In the
United States, Lennu was also briefly featured in The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, showing
Internet memes made from him.[7] In May 2017 a picture of Lennu in Niinistö's lap was shown at
Reddit in a forum where users competed in
image manipulation. The Lennu challenge was so popular it was shown at the Reddit front page.[8] The dog has also had a pastry named after him.[9] Lennu was present in accepting
Christmas greetings addressed to the president and was almost the leading character in the
Yle News broadcast: he was very interested in the
Christmas ham and pike.[10]
In May 2020 president Niinistö announced that Lennu had been kept out of publicity because blunt-nosed dogs can have health problems, and the presidential couple thus did not want to keep their dog in the public eye. They had not known of the health problems caused by the breeding of this particular breed when acquiring the dog.[11]