World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is an organization dedicated to campaigning for conservation, restoration and support of our environment. It has released numerous hard-hitting campaigns that are inspiring and creative, with motivational messages to spearhead change. Through innovative illustrations, the campaigns have highlighted the environmental consequences caused by human disregard and have thus helped in spreading awareness. The ads communicate the consequences of your acts, such as, forgetting to turn off the lights, purchasing illegal souvenirs or supporting unfair practices, which adversely affect our environment in an imaginative manner. Some ads have an evocative meaning to get people thinking and feeling for the plight of suffering animals. The selected ads contain emotional aspects in a relevant structural setting for creating a hard hitting impact.
1. Campaign to stop golf course construction
Tagline: A golf course with 200,000 trees. Help us stop it.
The ad was in protest of plans to build several golf courses simultaneously in southern Turkey. Golf courses destroy forest land and consume limited water resources. The ad showed how the gameâs enjoyment comes at a price – the axe instead of the club implies the loss of trees. Moreover, the act has been made brutal by the swing pose. The commercial called for readers to help stop the unnecessary destruction of land in pursuit of commercialism.
2. Threatened wildlife campaign
Tagline: Our life at the Cost of Theirs
Illustrations of a busy city define the shape of the animal threatened by humans. Growth of cities occupy animal habitat, endangering the lives of many species that depend on the forest for their food and shelter. Though humans can lead comfortable lives, it costs animals everything. This ad brings our focus to the fact that how development can blind us to the predicament of animals. The roads, buildings, cars, everything that signifies a lively metropolitan city is very detailed while the animal outline appears almost secondary in importance.
3. Campaign to stop harming animals
Tagline: Set harm, get harm
This advertisement has been created with an aim to deliver the message of peaceful living along with animals to the Chinese audience. An imprint of the endangered animal tattoo on a manâs chest symbolizes the close relationship that humans share with nature. Or rather that animals and humans are a united entity in the world and any hurt we inflict on animals will return to injure us. The slash mark is a noticeable painful wound for the animal and the man. Tattoos have strong meaning in Chinese culture and often represent the personâs beliefs or ideals.
4. Save/Donât save
Tagline: For a living planet
A simple well-executed ad that pierces viewers with the main issue that orangutans are in danger and we need to save them. With an everyday action that anyone who owns a computer has to do, the concept forces the public to think about endangered animals and what can be done. Indifference cannot be afforded.
5. Comic Noir, Tiger
Tagline: Save the Tiger!! Itâs now or never
The message of impending danger on the tiger under bleak conditions has been captured very well in the art through the use of gray hues and dark color. By personifying the tiger and exaggerating its features, we are struck with empathy for the helpless situation the tiger is in. The transposition of the endangered animalâs position in nature into a familiar human perspective is quite effective in reaching the audience, especially educating youngsters. The ad made an appearance at the Madrid comicsâ festival and was aimed at promoting the WWF in comic stores.
6. WWF: Tree
Tagline: If the tree falls, we all fall
Elaborated with eye-catching design enliven the idea of forest restoration with meaning and significance. The ad shows how the entire world stands on the balance of nature, namely the trees. The design was based on the ancient idea of the world resting on a whale or elephant, but they replaced the foundation with a tree and an iceberg. The beautiful graphics lend credence to the message of balance of nature and its influence on our lives.
7. Act now campaign
Tagline: You canât afford to be slow in an emergency
WWF France unveiled this ad to compel the public to recognize the danger of maintaining an apathetic stance about the growing ecological crisis. It demands the public to act similar to the way they would expect trusted uniformed men, like ambulance officers, to act when there is trouble. The ad compares the intensity of a dangerous situation to the need for ecological protection. Hinting at what our indifference would lead to… The firemen are distracted from their duties by trivial occupations while a fire burns in the distance.
8. WWF: Sea creatures
Tagline: Help us make this species extinct
The sea creature is constructed entirely from disposed garbage and therefore, does not belong to the ocean. The beautifully detailed design alludes to the whalesâ place in the ocean and the undesirability of garbage in its habitat.
9. WWF: Desertification
Tagline: Desertification destroys 6000 species every year
The beautiful feathers of the parrots are disintegrating into sand, perfectly conveying the striking symbolism of the destruction of species due to the man made deserts. Clouds of deteriorating dust imitate the dry and eroded floor of arid landscapes caused by societyâs destructive practices. The WWF Desertification campaign wanted to advocate support for boosting animal population through the World Wildlife Fund and put a halt to desertification.
10. WWF: Deforestation
Tagline: Mindless deforestation wrecks homes
The pitiable condition of the animals in their dejected state invokes emotions of sadness, disgust, and surprise. Elephants are magnificent creatures and in this ad, they are reduced to this humiliating state, laying helplessly and mournfully on the hard pavement floor, surrounded by trash in what can be described as a waste dump.
The melancholy of the ad is exuded in the black and white imagery, heightened by the contrast of harsh light and somber gray. At this angle, the elephant appears to be shrunken in size, in contrast to the its towering characteristics. Also shocking is how similar the animal is to a homeless person. The message is lucid in the details that human deforestation destroys the natural habitats of wild animals and leaves them without a safe haven.
