Baidu’s India office is launching a new social campaign named “The Last Conversation” to raise awareness of the wildlife depletion on World Environment Day (WED) 2016 in the form of a final conversation with different endangered animals.
The campaign in animation shorts will feature Baidu’s mascot, the “DU bear”, having the final conversation through a series of posts on Facebook and Twitter to urge people to avoid products that cause harm to wildlife.
According to a 2014 report issued by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), India is home to 6.5 per cent of the world’s total wildlife species, which includes 7.6 per cent of all mammals and 12.6 per cent of all bird species. Out of these, 15 species of birds, 12 species of mammals and 18 species of reptiles and amphibians in India are recognised as critically endangered.
Baidu India will hold its campaign on Twitter and Facebook from 1 to 5 June, 2016, with the hash tag #TheLastConversation. The animals featured in the conversations will speak their last words to the DU bear before they are turned into consumer products, in a strong message of the harmful impact of our purchases on wildlife.
Baidu has previously advocated other environmental causes in India and worldwide. Since 2014, Baidu’s android apps ‘DU Battery Saver’ and ‘DU Speed Booster’ have partnered with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) on a yearly basis to raise awareness of Earth Hour, the world’s largest grassroots environmental movement organised by WWF.
The theme of World Environment Day this year is illegal trade in wildlife, with the slogan ‘Go Wild for Life’.