I had the opportunity to work on the Save the Orcas campaign this quarter as part of the Action project, and I gained some amazing insights along the road. I had never worked on a campaign like this before, and on top of that, I had never participated in a program where I was being directed by a person who was younger than I was. My introduction to the marketing side came from the work we did for this campaign, which was mostly focused on their social media initiatives. I found this experience to be energizing because I had never before worked in marketing. I learned that even something as simple as designing an infographic for a company’s Instagram story required careful consideration and effort to ensure that the information was both readable and attention-grabbing enough for viewers.

Working with my classmates, I discovered that the work that was most successful was that which was motivated by the very animals we were attempting to save. When viewed in light of the information, the marketing we did might appear to be rather depressing; however, by incorporating color schemes meant to evoke images of the sea and the lives of these creatures, we were able to balance somber facts with amusing depictions of orcas enjoying their habitat and the effects they had on their environments. I was frequently reminded of the albatross movie we saw in class as I worked on this project. The natural order of things is still being destroyed as civilization advances deeper into the Anthropocene, particularly when it comes to the habitats of the oceans. A number of species are on the verge of extinction with little hope left due to the continued dumping of rubbish and the bad management of human constructions. At least with our project, we could see a clear result of the action we wanted to do, and by succeeding in that, it might even result in a slight improvement in the natural world. I couldn’t stop wondering how we could have ever allowed the world to get to this position while watching the albatross movie, but because of this campaign, I was able to see an example of it happening in our own backyard.