ADVERTISING AND MEDIA CAMPAIGNS

There are four campaigns I will be discussing.

1.      ‘The End Of The Line’ documentary campaign

Firstly the documentary called ‘The End of The Line’ was launched in 2009 about the destructive effects of overfishing. The catch phrase for the movie is ‘imagine an ocean without fish’. In the movie they show how the world has affected our ocean with the almost extinction of the Bluefish Tuna due to the demand of sushi; the impact on marine life and what our future will look like without any fish. It was filmed over two years by a reporter Charles Clover who investigates and challenges Politian’s and celebrity restaurateurs, who turn a blind eye to the damaging consequences they are creating. The film is shot across the world - from the Straits of Gibraltar to the coasts of Alaska to the Tokyo fish markets (The end of seafood on endoftheline, 2009).

The film actually puts the responsibility on consumers who naively buy endangered fish from restaurants, politicians who ignore advice from scientists, fishermen who break quotas and the global fishing industry who is slow to react to the consequences that lie ahead. Yet the film provides solutions, so everybody can make a difference (The end of Seafood on endoftheline, 2009).

The End of the Line is not only a documentary it is a global campaign for people to demand better marine policies. It will be released worldwide in numerous formats and venues, which include theaters, television networks, film festivals, online video campaigns, aquariums, museums and special screenings. Overall the film is not against fishing or eating fish but just asking people to be responsible about the fish they buy (The end of Seafood on endoftheline, 2009).

2.      The World Wide Foundation campaign for Bluefin Tuna overfishing – ONLINE ADVERTISING

The world wide Foundation led a campaign showing the BluefinTuna fish with three different mask of animals they thought people cared more about. For example the fish with a panda mask on and the pay-off line stating “Would you care more if I was a panda?” I feel this is done fantastically as it gets you thinking about why we don’t give fish as much attention in the media? We never hear stories of how fish are treated badly but there will be a huge outcry if rhinos are being slaughtered till extinction. Why don’t we feel sentimental or emotional towards fish? Is it because we don’t see them as being cute and soft like a panda we can exploit them easier? Fish are animals too, yet we just see them as food, but if that food was taken away I think then we would we only see the value in them. People in general do not care about protecting fish or taking a stand on the issue as much as they do with other animals.

Paul Greenberg (2010, p.80) a National Geographic investigator went to a seafood summit in Honolulu Harbor where about two dozen buyers enter the factory full of carcasses; he describes the situation like this, “Tuna as big as wagon wheels, spearfish and swordfish with their bills sawed off, their bodies all lined up…auctioneers drill core samples from their lifeless white bellies. Buyers finger these samples for quality…as instructions come over the cell phone, bids are conveyed to the auctioneer through mysterious hand gestures…little sheets of paper are slapped on a fishes flank when the sale is finalized.” From this description we can see how ill treated these fish are, they are treated like clothing that can be thrown around and prices attached to them in large factories. Here animals are seen as a spectacle; the auctioneers observe them and judge them. All our knowledge about the fish and how helpless they have become in the sea gives us human’s complete power over them (Burger, J, 1980: p.27). I feel especially in the case of fish it is this power that separates us from them, we have no emotional connection with them, and we will never be their ‘friends’.

In today’s society with regards to the fishing industry we accept the enlightenments view of nature purely being used as a ‘physical’ resource to be used in an unemotional and scientific way life’ (Dickens, P. 2004: p.4). Fish is never seen in a Romanticised way, perhaps dolphins and whales are admired but majority of fish that are consumed are treated as food and nothing else. Romanticism views nature as having its own qualities and not just for its value as an economic resource, for the views of people to change and see fish in this manner will take a long time, perhaps when fish are all endangered.

 Through this advert they hope to give fish a voice and make people more emotional towards them, so that they can think twice before ordering endangered fish again and also think about how they are treated in general.

3.      Campaign by Oceana to stop fishing subsidies – OUTDOOR ADVERTISING

This campaign really went unnoticed and didn’t have the same emotional connection as the advert for WWF. Yet it is addressing a different issue and one that is just as important in the fishing industry and some exposure is better than no exposure at all. The pay-off line for this billboard advert is, ‘subsidies are fishing the world’s oceans to death – it’s time to cut the bait.’ The non-profit group Oceana started this campaign in 2010 to persuade the World Trade Organisation to ban subsidies that allow the exhaustion of fishing stocks to continue. Although governments have clearly seen the impacts of what overfishing has done over the last 50 years they continue to provide huge subsidies. Roughly $20 billion annually is given to various fishing sectors and these fleets are fishing at a level which is 2.5 times more than what is necessary for sustainable fishing levels (Campaign to combat overfishing on Business-ethics, 2011). Perhaps this advert was aimed at governments only and therefore it did not have the impact it wanted amongst citizens, but it allows us to question things and make the public aware of what is really going on behind closed doors. It is up to the media to bring the issue up more often and expose as many people who are not being sustainable as possible.

4.      Campaign by SASSI on bycatch fishing – PRINT ADVERTISING

This advert was placed in the Fairlady magazine and the first time I read the magazine I didn’t even notice the advert. When I eventually did see it I wasn’t emotionally drawn to it but wanted to read more. The image is of a variety of different types of fish parts built up to make one fish, the catch phrase is “ONLY A PORTION OF THE CATCH IN LONG LINE TUNA FISHING IS TUNA”. The advert is trying to make you more emotional about the issue by adding a dolphin, turtle, seal and shark to the image so people might take action about the issue at hand as people are more drawn to those fish than tuna and salmon images. The advert is also making society aware of what is happening and encouraging people to do something about it, in the fine print they say “to ensure the fish you buy is environmentally friendly, text our number (079 499 8795) with the type of fish and you’ll receive a sms back as to whether it is in the red, orange or green category.” (For the love of our oceans, 2011, p.70)