Our freedom or theirs? Why not both - asks WWF's ad film

In their latest ad film, WWF India stresses on the importance of coexistence between humans and animals. The ad features shots of locked down humans and of animals parading on deserted streets, outside their natural habitat.

Himanshu Pandey, Director, Marketing Communication, WWF India informs that according to WWF’s Living Planet Report, we have lost 60 per cent of wildlife populations in the last 44 years, globally. "This short film is a reminder that this planet belongs to not just us but also wildlife. It’s the myriad species i.e. biodiversity that ensures balance in nature for a safer, resilient and sustainable world. It is unimaginable to think of life without the varied biodiversity that surrounds us," he says. Pandey stresses on the importance of coexistence when we step out of our houses after the lockdown.

Sambit Mohanty, creative head (South), McCann Bangalore informs us that all the shots of people looking out of their balcony grills with a morose look on their face were shot with high end smartphones and DSLRs. "The director, Jaideep Sarkar ensured the shoot was completed without anyone stepping out of their homes as the direction was done remotely, maintaining social distancing rules," he says.

Mohanty informs us that the brief was centered on co-existence, since WWF stands for conservation primarily and a large part of their message is about sustainability and coexistence. "The WWF is basically concerned with anything that is pro-planet and in these times, when there is a human-animal conflict increasing by the day because of decreasing natural habitat and increasing population (think of the story of a leopard encroaching into an apartment in Mumbai.) The insight we saw during the lockdown was that with mankind confined to their homes, wildlife is fearlessly roaming the streets. The message we wanted to convey is that its not us OR them. Its us AND them," he says.

Mohanty adds that the biggest challenge when it came to putting the film together was sourcing footage from different parts of social media. "Most of the footage was circulating on social media and we sourced it from Twitter, Facebook etc. We approached the people who had shot this footage via the official WWF channel since it’s a widely recognised organisation," he mentions.

Credits

Agency: McCann Bangalore

Chairman & CCO: Prasoon Joshi

Head of Creative: Ashish Chakravarty

Creative Head (South): Sambit Mohanty

Creative Team: Sambit Mohanty, Ajith Emmanuel, Unnikrishnan.R, Nilesh Kulkarni, Vaishali Rao

Account Management: Keshav PN

Director: Jaydeep Sarkar

Producer: Prithvi Luthra

Production House: Native Films