One elephant is killed in Africa every 25 minutes. That works out to be 55 in a single day. If this is to continue, there will be no more elephants in the wild within two decades.
World Elephant Day, is a day dedicated to the preservation and protection of the world's elephants. However, with every year that passes the presence of elephants in the world declines. This is due to the brutality and persistence of poachers, fuelled by the ivory trade.
This is simply, a fact that people need to know about. WCRS, Engine’s creative agency, were tasked with both raising awareness of this and driving people to donate to Born Free in order to fund anti-poaching patrols and elephant research in Africa. To give this shocking statistic maximum impact, the campaign powerfully brings to life the scale of daily loss and dramatises the passing of time, in executions across OOH and social.
The sheer number of elephants that are killed has been represented with a long line of 55 elephants marching to their death, with a poacher taking aim at the front of the line, shot by photographer George Logan. To represent the passing of time, and the fact that elephants are being brutally murdered into extinction, a beautifully crafted animation of an elephant in an hourglass will also be promoted across social. The gradual falling of sand through the hourglass is a powerful representation that if we do nothing, elephants in the wild will be a thing of the past.
Will Travers OBE, Born Free’s Co-Founder and President, said: “In a time of sensory overload where news and images come at all angles, it is hard to make your mark. However, the extraordinary ‘55 elephants and man with gun’ image has done just that. An extraordinary concept. An extraordinary outcome.”
Grant Parker, Creative Director and Head of Art at WCRS said “Born Free is a client that is doing such significant and vital work. It has been hugely humbling to be able to help them raise awareness on such an important issue. And to know that the work we’ve created has had tangible results is very rewarding. Finally, my 6 year old will understand what I did at work today.”
Tell us about your role in the creation of this work.
I was the joint Creative Director together with Steve Hawthorne
Give us an overview of the campaign, what is it about?
Born Free’s ‘Elephants in Crisis’ project aims to raise awareness around how without our intervention, elephants face extinction. The threats of poaching and habitat loss, are causing the numbers of elephants in the wild to significantly decline at an unprecedented and alarming rate.
Tell us about the details creative brief, what did it ask?
For this particular brief we were asked to raise the awareness around the poaching of elephants. An alarming 55 a day are killed - that’s one every 25 minutes.
Which insight led to the creation of this piece of work?
The ‘55 killed a day’ fact was the most shocking insight. It seems surreal that poaching at this vast scale still continues today.
Can you share with us any alternative ideas (if any) for this campaign? Why was this idea chosen?
There were many great ideas. We decided to make three for the burst of activity around World Elephant Day (12th August)
How did the client initially react to this idea?
Extremely well. The simplicity of the image of 55 elephants and 1 poacher was universally loved. It has a poignancy about it that resonated with the client - such a long row of elephants marching to their inevitable death. And this represents just one day if poaching. The hour-glass visual was also loved by the client. Striking and simple.
What was the greatest challenge that you and your team faced during development.
George Logan (the photographer behind the campaign) luckily has an extensive library of great images of elephants, so together with his tireless retouches we were able to create the epic landscape and comp into the extremely long image.
What did you enjoy most about seeing this campaign through? Did you learn anything new from the experience?
It has been a great project to work on. It’s always hugely rewarding to see the work make a significant change. The burst of activity in World Elephant Day raised quite a bit of money and we also had 20 elephants adopted.
Where do you see this campaign going in the future?
There is a lot more that we need to do to help Born Free. Sadly, elephants are not the only animals in peril. We will do more work for their Elephants in Crisis programme and have been briefed on other projects too.
