Melanie Gosling
Environment Writer
A RADICAL new advertising campaign has been launched in Vietnam to try to convince wealthy, middle-aged businessmen – the main consumers of rhino horn – that they do not need horn to be successful, powerful or strong.
The central message is that Vietnam’s most charismatic and successful men create their good fortune from their internal drive or will – Chi – and these men know that a piece of horn can be no substitute for the power that lies within.
The campaign has been launched by the World Wide Fund-South Africa (WWF-SA), whose research has shown that rich Vietnamese men aged between 35 and 55 were the main users of rhino horn, which they used to flaunt their wealth, to forge business ties by giving the horn as corporate gifts, or in the belief that it would bring good luck.
WWF-SA’s research shows the rising middle class in Vietnam is the main driver of the huge spike in rhino horn consumption that has led to 3 222 South African rhino being killed since 2010. Before 2007 that there were about 10 or 20 rhino killings a year.
The ads were launched yesterday, World Rhino Day, on Vietnamese radio, social media, and magazines. They will also appear as installations in expensive shops, golf clubs and other venues that Vietnam’s wealthy, middle-aged businessmen frequent. One billboard shows a suited man whispering to other businessmen that they do not need horn to be successful, as success comes from qualities within.
WWF-SA worked with TRAFFIC, a wildlife trade monitoring network, and PSI, a Vietnamese social marketing group with expertise in behaviour change advertising, to work out how to convince these wealthy users to stop using rhino horn.
Jo Shaw, WWF-SA’s rhino programme manager, said the first step to counter the illegal trade was to understand rhino horn consumers and find out what they were getting from it emotionally.
“We found they use it as a symbol of power and good luck, or they would display it in their homes as a status symbol, or they would give it as a gift to show someone how much they value them, or to solidify business partnerships.”
Lesser uses were for health effects, to prevent or cure hangovers, and to keep for “peace of mind” in case someone in the family fell ill.
The next step was to find out what would convince these consumers not to buy rhino horn. The organisation tested certain advertisements and found that trying to appeal to consumers on the basis of killing or rhino and trade in horn being illegal, or that rhino were being slaughtered to feed their demand, did not work, as people “tuned out” when told about this. Even graphic photographs of dead rhino with horns hacked off had little effect on them.
The advertisements have therefore been designed without any link to rhino. They try to show that successful men have got where they are not by using horn, but by being driven by their Chi – that masculinity, business success and charisma come from within, not from horn.