Wildlife trafficking and illegal consumption of wildlife products remain a challenge in Vietnam, but USAID’s Saving Species project is helping to change that. From 2020-2021, Saving Species ran a Karma Campaign, targeting consumers of ivory and pangolin products who use them as a display of social status and wealth. The campaign launched two videos that challenged the perceived social benefits of using the wildlife products, and instead emphasized the negative karma that comes with them, through a “buy one, get one free” message: “Buy one ivory, get one retribution” and “Eat pangolin, receive retribution”, with the retribution in the form of condemnation and shame.
The videos alone reached over 2 million people through both Facebook and YouTube, with 74,000 people engaging with the campaign (through clicks, likes and shares on the videos), while the Facebook page of the campaign reached more than 3 million engagements. Billboards with the messaging in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City reached another 15 million people. Listed as one of the most engaging social campaigns between the end of 2020 and the beginning of 2021 by marketing and communications network Worldwide Partners, Inc. (WPI), the Karma Campaign was included as one of six campaigns spotlighted by WPI for empowering and enabling social change in the world today.
By conveying the message of bad karma and diminished social status associated with the consumption of illegal wildlife products, USAID is helping change behavior and reduce consumer demand and illegal trade of wildlife in Vietnam.