CRITIQUE - WWF and the inconvenient truth

Some friends recently returned from a trip to the Arctic on a Russian science vessel.  As you'd expect, they had many fascinating tales to tell.

But the story that stuck with me most concerned the polar bears.  They are territorial animals with an intimate knowledge of their environment.

Problem is, their environment is disappearing.  A bear will swim long distances to a neighbouring ice floe.  But since the animal's previous journey, the ice floe may have melted away.  Eventually exhausted, the bear will simply drown. 

This image was brought back to me with some force by the current campaign for the World Wildlife Fund (or WWF as it prefers to be known).

It is a beautifully emotive film.  A polar bear and her cub nestle together on a tiny island of ice before setting off into the Artic waters.  So far, so predictable, I guess.  After all, the polar bear has become the icon of the threat posed to wildlife by climate change.

It certainly has more going for it than the terminally lazy and stupid panda that was adopted as the WWF logo seemingly at the same time as the animal waddled down its evolutionary cul-de-sac.

But what really lifts the WWF polar bear film is the soundtrack.  As any adman worth his salt has always known, music can be more than half a commercial.

So hats off to Kitcatt Nohr Alexander Shaw for securing the services of Ella Fitzgerald's masterpiece "Every time we say goodbye.".  This combination of plaintive score with affecting imagery will, I am sure, have thousands clicking through to adopt a polar bear. 

This ad is stripped down to the essentials, and the client deserves a plaudit for resisting the temptation to add anything else, such as a wholly unnecessary voice over.

But there is one element that is a worthwhile addition - the "Keep the world wild" campaign badge. 

If you are a well-established, famous charity, you have a big problem ... you are well-established and famous.  Your potential donors may mistakenly assume that your coffers are already overflowing and give their cash to smaller, newer, perhaps "trendier" charities.

In the absence of wholesale re-branding (expensive and possibly counter-productive), WWF's new device is a subtle but effective way to reinvigorate the organisation's campaigning credentials and maintain its relevance in what we all know is a massively overcrowded sector.

Simon S Kershaw is a creative consultant. A former creative director at Craik Jones, Kershaw writes a weekly column for marketingdirectmag.co.uk and the DM Bulletin.

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