null - The Wildlife Trusts - Wilder Futures

For our Wilder Futures campaign, we made an attention-grabbing 'fake' movie trailer of the 'Wind in the Willows' to raise awareness of wildlife depletion. Much loved characters Badger, Toad, Mole and Ratty find themselves in serious trouble when they return to the Willows in 2019.

The Challenge

Raise awareness of wildlife depletion in Britain and show that it can still be reversed.

The Insight

People don't react positively to bleak, preachy messaging, but they do to much loved characters (and Sir David Attenborough).

The Solution

Create the Wilder Futures campaign, making an attention-grabbing movie trailer for a dystopian Wind In the Willows to push the government towards much-needed law changes.

The Execution 

The trailer was created by the animators behind Wes Anderson's Isle of Dogs and voiced by a stellar cast of influential figures including Attenborough, Catherine Tate, Asim Chaudhry and Alison Steadman. 

With the campaign being shown in cinemas across the UK as well as broadcast across billboards up and down the country, the press picked up the campaign instantly. National press coverage of Wilder Futures spans across major publications such as Vogue, The Independent and The Telegraph. It has also been listed by the Shots as one of the hottest contenders at Cannes Lions 2019. 

Afterthought 

For many of us, reading Kenneth Grahame's 'Wind in the Willows' was a major part of our childhoods. Attenborough, President of The Wildlife Trusts said of wildlife depletion that "it is desperately sad that so much of our country's wildlife has been lost since Kenneth Grahame wrote his wonderful book," and that "it is hard to know whose descendants have suffered the worst."

The Climate emergency has established a moral imperative to make a change. 

"We are a nation of nature-lovers, yet we live in one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world. If we want to put nature into recovery we have to create a mass movement of people calling for change... Our film is a sad version of the 'Wind in the Willows' - showing how Ratty and Toad have hit the buffers- but it ends with a real message of hope. It's not too late to create strong laws which will help our wildlife make a comeback - and it's not too late to establish a Nature Recovery Network which will enable us to plan a wilder future." - Stephanie Hilborne, CEO of The Wildlife Trusts