World Animal Protection Thailand - Stop Elepains
Elephant shows are recognized as a “face” of Thailand's tourism industry but there are “forces” behind the shows. The sad truths that nobody knows are that the elephants are starved, chained, abused and separated from their moms in order that they can obey the commands and be easily controlled. It is a sad truth that Thai elephants are known and remembered as smart and cute animal that can do tricks, can walk on two feet or walk on tiny rope. These are not natural for elephants to do. In this campaign, we want to raise an awareness of the abuse behind the show and urge people from around the world to love elephants for what they really are. The campaign aims to raise donations to support ethical elephant camps so that the elephants can live happily as they deserve.
We utilized iconic elephant pants and twisted normal elephant prints into suffered ones. For example, beaten and disfigured spine elephants from carry tourists, starved elephants, and elephants standing on a small chair. These prints tell the sad truth behind the show and we want to speak for them.
Hijacking moments from people who like elephant pants by displaying these pants in stores that sell elephant pants and elephant souvenirs to get attention from people who are into elephants. With the “Stop Elepains” pants design raised questions and concerns on what happened to Thai elephants, and this triggered the people who were visiting the shop to want to find out for more information.
On the elephant pants, there is a QR tag on the elephant pants leads to “Stop Elepains” microsite. On the site, there’s information on how elephants are badly treated and abused and how we can be a part of helping as the proceed of the pants goes to help the elephants in need and support ethical elephant camps. On the site, there’s also more information on where we can find ethical elephant camps in Thailand so we can change and level up Thailand tourism to a friendly tourism destination.
The responses were impressive as people realized the abuse behind the show. This created a huge impact as they considered to find out more on the abuse and how they could help. The audiences are also willing to visit ethical elephant camps rather than the show ones. We also gained organic share and media as this is the issue that has never been raised publicly and it also comes in a form of elephant pants which even make the audiences feel in-trend and proud to be a part of the change.
