2008
Vladivostok: Wild Aid Environmental Message Takes Top Billing on Central Square
In partnership with the leading local television station, OTV Prim, PAS Vladivostok arranged a mass broadcasting of WildAid’s Harrison Ford Public Service Announcements that post received from the Department in June 2008. In the three short films, Harrison Ford appeals to people to do their part to combat wildlife trafficking. OTV Prim, one of the largest regional TV companies with an audience of over 2 million viewers broadcast three short videos six times a day for five days in a row, before and after the annual Tiger Day celebration in Vladivostok. The peak of the publicity was Harrison Ford’s appearance on a large TV screen at Vladivostok’s central square on Sunday, September 28, during the Tiger Day parade (see attached photos). The 9th Annual Tiger Day celebration was arranged by several NGOs including the Phoenix Fund, WWF, International Fund for Animal Welfare, and Wildlife Conservation Society, with a support of the Primorskiy Kray and Vladivostok administrations. The aim of this event is to promote environmental awareness among local youth and to protest poaching by honoring the endangered Amurskiy tiger, the symbol of the region and its ecosystem. A parade of 2,000 high school students dressed in tiger costumes and as other endangered species participated in sidewalk art contests and performances, attracting thousands of citizens and guests to Vladivostok. Harrison Ford appealed to the participants from the digital TV screen every twelve minutes, thanks to Vladivostok PAS production of a special version of the DVD with Russian subtitles. Each of the three videos – Situation, Souvenir, and Don’t Buy It - ended with a message “From the People of the United States”, demonstrating the shared concern of both the people of the United States and Russia in addressing this global issue.