Stop the Demand for Ivory
Stop the Demand for Ivory
Propaganda is an ever-changing form of communication that aims to influence people’s beliefs, views, and behavior. In today’s society, propaganda is nearly inescapable, and we are constantly being bombarded with messages across social media platforms that make it difficult to discern what information is true and what is being weaponized in an effort to sway public opinion. Personally, I am confronted with propaganda so often that sometimes I am unaware or even forget that my behavior is being altered by what I interact with online. When using social media apps like Instagram or TikTok, I am constantly scrolling past targeted advertisements and faced with specific algorithms that are implemented by these platforms with the goal of keeping my phone glued to my hand for as long as possible. However, although it has its cons, propaganda can also be used for good. Companies and organizations can cultivate forms of propaganda to promote their causes, gain traction, and create a call to action in which people respond in order to help make a difference. For this assignment, our objective is to choose a cause that is important to us and create a piece of propaganda through the utilization of strategies we learned about in class to accomplish the goal of the campaign.
For my project, I wanted to choose a campaign that I was passionate about so I could create a form of propaganda that felt personal to me, which would hopefully make it more effective in reaching others. I decided to choose the campaign called “Flag Ivory Items on Craigslist To Stop Elephant Poaching.” As someone who cares deeply about the environment, I thought that this campaign would allow me the opportunity to be creative while also raising awareness about an issue that is actively affecting wildlife, specifically the critical endangerment of African elephants. I decided that I wanted to make a video campaign because I felt that the best way to get the message across was to provide a visual for the audience so it felt more personalized. I was inspired by commercials I have seen online such as the ASPCA campaigns where they target your emotions by showing a montage of sad-looking cats and dogs shivering in shelters set to depressing music, so you feel obligated to donate and do your part to help out those poor animals. My intention was to target people’s emotions, specifically sympathy, to further direct their attention to this prominent issue of poaching and unregulated ivory trade.
My goal was to divide the video into two parts- for the first section, I wanted to show beautiful, cinematic shots of elephants in the wild, just interacting with one another and behaving naturally. I decided to include facts about elephants that felt particularly humanizing so that the audience could get a better understanding of how similar this species is to humans, which creates a stronger connection between the audience and these animals. For the second half of the video, I wanted to create a stark contrast between elephants in the wild and visuals of just their tusks- which is all that’s left of these magnificent creatures after poaching. My goal was to show that the high demand for ivory is what allows poaching to continue, and when it comes down to it we are potentially causing an entire species to go extinct purely for monetary value and gain. This places an obligation on the shoulders of the audience to help out in any way possible, even if it’s as simple as flagging ivory items they see while browsing on Craigslist. During the process of creating this video, I knew that the important piece that would tie everything together is the music. One of my favorite creative strategies that I’ve seen used, specifically in horror movies, is pairing happy, upbeat, vintage-sounding music with a video of something disturbing, which creates an unsettling effect and causes the audience to feel uncomfortable. I think that the song I picked paired nicely with the first part of the video, but as the shots transition from baby elephants to stacks on stacks of their tusks, the audience is shocked by this contrast and associates the upbeat music with something more sinister.
The devices I used while creating this video were mainly plain folks, which presents an image of personal identity that emphasizes the similarities between elephants and humans, and glittering generalities, which is an attempt to sway emotions through the use of virtues. Like I mentioned earlier, by showing how elephants live in societies that mirror our own, we feel more connected to them in an intimate way. We are able to recognize ourselves in these creatures, which creates a personal relationship and therefore leads the audience to feel like it is essential to protect this species. If the audience is aware that elephants have amazing memories, live in families, mourn for their dead, and even have funerals, they can’t ignore the injustice of their genocide. By utilizing glittering generalities, I was able to highlight the absence of morality and humanity that occurs when it comes to poaching and killing elephants purely for their tusks. Any person who values virtues such as justice and truth will likely be swayed by this video to do their part in protecting elephants- or else we will have to live with the knowledge that their extinction is entirely our fault and that there is no one else to blame.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this project and having the opportunity to create a piece of propaganda for a cause I am truly passionate about. In the future, I would love to have a job that also allows me to do this. I am currently majoring in Communications and minoring in Wildlife Conservation, so making this video allowed me to combine my interest in creating with my passion for environmental issues. I think it is rewarding to make something that will emotionally touch other people, and hopefully will even persuade them to help out in any way they can. The most I can hope for is that creating campaigns such as this will inspire people and spark a change- and of course, that future generations will be able to grow up alongside elephants.
Works Cited
Denis. “Why Care?” World Elephant Day, World Elephant Day, 12 Aug. 2023, https://worldelephantday.org/about/elephants#:~:text=An%20estimated%20100%20African%20elephants,of%20thousands%20of%20African%20elephants.
“Elephants Animals Collection in 8K TV HDR 60FPS ULTRA HD.” YouTube, uploaded by 8K VIDEOS ULTRA HD, 6 September 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AA0UZVXJd2o&t=596s.
Ojo, Oluwakemi Ojo. “10 Amazing Facts about Elephants That Will Make You Love Them More.” Travelstart Kenya’s Travel Blog, Travelstart, 28 Jan. 2015, https://www.travelstart.co.ke/blog/10-amazing-facts-about-elephants-that-will-make-you-love-them-more/.
“Series Intro: Inside the Ivory Trade | Battle for the Elephants.” YouTube, uploaded by National Geographic, 4 February 2023, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJbOmWE0jIo.
