An unborn rhino foetus removed from its dead and dehorned mother. In this poaching incident a wildlife ranger was also killed. It is not good enough for Vietnamese businessmen to try to disassociate themselves from this killing spree by saying “We don’t do the poaching, we only buy the horn”. This destruction is carried out to fulfil their personal desire for status, bestowed through their ability to obtain a rare, expensive product – genuine rhino horn. It is common for the wealthy to feel the need to demonstrate their worth by the luxury goods they own, but there is a difference between buying Rolex watches and obtaining illegal wildlife products. The need to demonstrate status goes too far when it results [...]

Of the series of adverts created for the pilot campaign one in particular has generated more comment than all the others put together: In this advert we use the term “to medicate” and people feel that this may give the use of rhino horn legitimacy. As more campaigns are developed to target the consumers of a range of illegal or endangered wildlife product, we thought people may be interested in the psychology behind creating the advert in the way we have. We do want to capture the attention of users who do consider rhino horn a medication/supplement; and to get the attention of these users we have been advised not to directly challenge a cultural belief. So if one person’s [...]

The people of Viet Nam like many countries throughout Asia have developed an interdependent self-concept vs. the independent self-concept more typical in Western cultures. As a result, it is much harder to set yourself apart from, challenge or put personal preferences before the norms of your group. To do so would cause a loss of face and would likely result in rejection by your peer group. This is captured in a recent factsheet published by TRAFFIC which gives an example of a typical user of rhino horn in Viet Nam: http://awsassets.panda.org/downloads/viet_nam_consumers_factsheet.pdf Mr. L a 48 year old property developer: He is focused on his social status and is therefore potentially vulnerable to outside influences He puts the good of his [...]

Richard Hargreaves’ update on the Lion Bone Trade from South Africa 24 April 2014 I recently read that the South African provincial records with regard to South Africa’s dead lion exports are a ‘complete shambles’. Based on the latest data now published for 2012 I’m inclined to agree…. DEAD LION EXPORTS FROM SOUTH AFRICA TO CHINA IN 2012 In December 2013 the South African Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs advised that South Africa exported the following dead lions to China in 2012: 36 trophies 15 bodies 2 skeletons By contrast, South Africa’s ‘official’ CITES records now show dead lion exports to China in 2012 of: 21 trophies 1 skin 12 bodies China’s ‘official’ CITES records for 2012 own up [...]

The opportunity to present the Breaking The Band campaign to over 120 delegates at the 2014 Zoo and Aquarium Association (ZAA) Conference was exciting if a little daunting. The conference, hosted by Auckland Zoo, brought people together to share ideas and, to quote the ZAA Australasia President Karen Fifield, take stock of the conservation outcomes and sustainability initiatives occurring in the region and worldwide. Certainly the conference confirmed that a lot of effort is focused on developing behaviour change initiatives. Often what is not realized by people in the conservation space is that they are asking “How can we get people to think and behave like us?”, which is not a helpful approach. […]

As we approach the Global March for Lions on March 15th the Breaking the Brand team would like to highlight how the model we have used to create the rhino campaign can help design behaviour change adverts targeting the canned hunting industry and its ‘supply chain’, namely lion cub petting and walking safaris with lions. As a group of people the BTB team find wildlife enthralling and we can understand why unsuspecting tourists, who feel the same way, could think of nothing more thrilling than getting up close to one of the world’s most captivating animals. We are sure that these same people would be truly mortified if they knew that in the case of lion farms what they are [...]

As individuals we are not fixed in our nature, we evolve and adapt due to different life circumstances and are able to deal with greater intellectual and emotional complexity. Spiral Dynamics is one of the models used to describe this evolution. According to developers of Spiral Dynamics, Graves, Beck and Cowan, our core values progress and regress over time depending upon the life circumstances we find ourselves in. The research undertaken over many years has uncovered that this model works on the individual level and also on the level of a group or even whole societies; it also established that this model is independent of culture, which led them to believe that it is associated with the ‘deep structure’ of [...]

The demand for illegal and endangered wildlife products needs an ever greater focus. Some animals have become so valuable for their parts that the cost of their 24/7 security is becoming prohibitive. In such instances, when there is limited time for awareness raising and education, brand breaking for behaviour change strategies are needed. Similarly, while education and awareness raising can be broad and appeal to the community, when immediate behaviour change is needed then the focus should be on the actual users of these illegal/endangered products. For the behaviour change message to be effective with the actual user it needs to elicit an immediate emotional response in the person; to do this they are generally controversial. A perfect example of [...]