July 2nd, 2013
The UN (UNEP) launched yesterday a new ivory demand-reduction campaign in Shanghai, with posters on the metro saying “Buying Illegal Ivory is Killing Me”, with a powerful photo of an elephant.
It’s time to say loud and clear: these campaigns don’t work!
Yes, these campaigns address the real problem, which is the lack of awareness in China and the need to reduce the demand for ivory from newly affluent consumers.
But these efforts are based on the assumption that Chinese people have our same values and our same perception of the issue. It’s a very bad mistake in communication.
And in order to engage the Chinese people it’s not enough to simply translate a poster in Chinese. It’s also not enough to have the sympathy of a few thousands Chinese elephant lovers.
It will take a few generations to have a broader genuine attention, in the meantime we can say goodbye to the elephants.
A recent yet unpublished survey by the National Geographic in collaboration with Ifop, the French institute of public opinion (Institut Français d’Opinion Publique) confirmed what we have been repeating for a long time. The study found that video and billboard advertisements in China that show how poaching is threatening Africa’s elephant population largely fail to deter consumers, although more than 50 percent of respondents have seen this type of messaging in videos or billboards. http://newswatch.
According to the survey, 84 percent of Chinese middle and upper-middle class consumers plan to buy ivory in the future. This is a humongous number that no ivory stock sale will ever match (open your ears and eyes my pro-trade friends!).
It’s time to stop with good manners.
It’s time to become more confrontational and sharp in our communication & awareness efforts.
It’s time to shame ivory consumers, sellers and traders.
It’s time to openly accuse and indict them, including corrupted Chinese officials, of raping a continent, breaking the law, fueling terrorism, exploiting vulnerable and disadvantaged communities, killing people (rangers & poachers) who leave behind orphans and widows.
It’s time for all the NGOs to sit aroud a table, find the humility to admit the failure and come up with a joint more powerful, effective an creative communication strategy, with the collaboration of a global communication firm and the courage to confront China, but for real.
It’s time to bitch slap ivory sellers and consumers, and whoever facilitates the ivory trade.
It’s time to fight back, also with words.
Andrea Crosta
Executive Director and Co-Founder of the Elephant Action League
Photo: the last ivory demand-reduction campaign in China by UNEP
