whiteGREY: Sheldrick Wildlife Trust’s tee has a story behind it (literally)

Adults continue to destroy the planet’s wildlife. Sheldrick Wildlife Trust has enlisted the power of children to help stave off the extinction of the endangered African elephant.

The idea for the fundraising and awareness project comes from whiteGREY. It begins with a t-shirt, the Ele-tee. The t-shirt unlocks an animated short film that explains the causes of the African elephant’s slide towards extinction in storybook manner.

The Ele-tee and Garzi story were designed and developed by whiteGREY, and the animation was produced by Passion Pictures.

The film tells the tale of Garzi the Orphan, an elephant rescued by the Trust at 18 months of age after his mother was killed by poachers. Garzi’s story highlights the very real issues faced by African Elephants today, including droughts caused by the climate crisis, habitat loss due to infrastructure development and illegal logging, and human-wildlife conflict over space and food.

Chad Mackenzie, national executive creative director, whiteGREY, stated, “The Ele-tee is an incredibly charming t-shirt but unlocks a story with a serious message. We hope the tale of Garzi will inspire kids and their parents to engage with the issues facing African elephants.”

whiteGREY creative director and children’s author, Ronojoy Ghosh, illustrated the Garzi story, while American actress and model, Kate Upton, voiced the story.

Rob Brandford, executive director of the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, noted, “The Ele-tee is tremendous fun for kids of all ages to wear and it sheds light on an important message about elephant conservation. We hope the charm of the Ele-tee and story of Garzi helps children, families and the world understand the many issues of why elephants are facing extinction and inspires them to take action.”

The Ele-tee will be sold via the Trust’s online store. The Garzi story will also be turned into an educational curriculum as part of the Trust’s global school programs.

Profits from the sale of the Ele-tee will go towards the Trust’s work protecting habitats in East Africa and its Orphans’ Project work to rescue, raise and rehabilitate elephants back into the wild. Elephants have roamed the wild for 15 million years and there were over 10 million African elephants in the early 20th century. Now there are fewer than 400,000. By 2025, scientists predict there could be only 190,000 left.

The new campaign follows whiteGREY’s earlier Hello in Elephant, a human-elephant translator created for World Elephant Day 2017. It was awarded the 18^th most effective campaign globally in the WARC Effective 100 in 2019.