Photo not found in this WWF campaign
They say a picture says a thousand words. Yet what if there were no more forests to photograph? No amazing shots of animals to be found? No tigers. No orangutans. No trees. Sometimes no image can say even more than a picture.
This new campaign for Greenpeace out of Bates141 Singapore is a fresh way to use a photo search site and was only possible with the cooperation of Yahoo. Banners and key words promise amazing pictures of Indonesia’s natural beauty. However, the photos on the search site cannot be found. You are then given a choice: Help Greenpeace save the animals. Or do nothing and resume your search. It seems most people are choosing to do the first. Take a look at the site and sign the petition.
The urls below go straight to the site but it works better if yousearch Yahoo.com for orangutans, tigers, rainforest or one of the otherkeywords that takes you to the site. Click on the first entry and itlinks to these messages.
Agency: Bates141, Singapore
Executive Creative Director / Chairman: Sonal Dabral
Creative Director: Ian Barnes
Art Director: Jovan Peh / Ian Barnes
Copywriter: Ian Barnes
Strategic Planner: Ian Barnes
Interactive Producer: Aaron Gomez
Media Partner: Yahoo S.E. Asia
Programmers: Jerry Soon / Thomas Ng
Digital: Xin Interactive
Photography: Photolibrary S.E. Asia
Media Partner: Yahoo! S..E. Asia
Client: Greenpeace S.E. Asia
Contact: Arthur Jones Dionio
Title: Communications Manager
5 Comments
Wow, is this what Bates has come to? Looks strangely tacky, guess thats because yahoo search pages look sort of tacky to begin with. But does this idea work online if you’re not looking for orangutan pictures to begin with? Perhaps not.
I think this is quite good. At least it is not just a press ad that has a logo bottom right hand corner.
I love how Ian Barnes is the planner, creative director, art director and copywriter. Lucky Bates have such a great all rounder.
Gosh. This idea is so done and dusted. I believe an exact idea albeit in print appeared in some award annual years back. And i totally agree with 6:22. It does not work unless one googles for some images of orang utans to use for the next “i really care for the animals” WWF ad.
It’s a bit more than just a press ad. The print ad merely helped drive people to the site. There were two ways to the site. The most popular was through the more than 200 keywords that took the browser to the mock Yahoo! photosearch page. The first entry on the page didn’t mention Greenpeace. It just promised amazing photos of orang-utans, tigers, rainforest. The pictures on the photo search site quickly disappeared and a flash overlay conveyed the message. The second way to the site was through banners on the Yahoo! homepage that didn’t mention Greenpeace. The site helped raise awareness of the problem as well as a significant amount of donations. It wouldn’t have been possible without the kindness and commitment of Yahoo! Unfortunately, Sumatra is still burning at a rapid rate. You can help by joining Greenpeace now. Write a letter to President Susilo Bambang. Or visit the orang-utans in Bukit Lawang and show that tourism is a more sustainable resource than palm oil. I didn’t write the credits but I did get Greenpeace an excellent deal on the media. Guess they failed to mention that. Oh well… have fun.