• by Larissa Faw , May 2, 2016

Wildlife Conservation Film Festival (WCFF) and its agency DDB New York are launching a new tongue-in-cheek campaign to engage young people in the fight to save endangered species and raise awareness and funds to the cause. 

The concept behind "Endangered Love" is that the most effective way to avoid extinction is to have sex. And instead of simply creating a campaign that encourages donations, “Endangered Love” takes a different approach by selling merchandise. The e-commerce site www.endangered.love offers an array of merchandise depicting humorous, slightly risqué illustrations of rhinos, pandas, sloths and gorillas procreating Kama Sutra-style. 

Products range from clothes, accessories, original art work and a series of books called “Panda Sutra,” “Sloth Sutra,” “Rhino Sutra” and “Gorilla Sutra.” Prices are around $22-$50.  In addition, there’s an online animated music video that parodies the Lonely Island song, “I Just Had Sex,” but, in this case, is sung by pandas.

A series of print ads are also being launched on Vice Magazine and Metro NYC.

“Surprisingly enough, it’s very difficult to get young people to engage and help out nature conservancy non-profits,” says Icaro Doria, chief creative officer of DDB New York. “Our goal was to raise awareness for species that are going extinct and encourage people to fund a cause that is essential for the future of the planet. So, what better way to grab attention than to provide humor and joy to a serious global issue?”

This initiative marks the first work for WCFF after appointing DDB New York as its pro bono agency of record in March of this year.