CSR, Aircel and Stripey

The pursuit of CSR can take some very strange turns as demonstrated by the Aircel campaign to save the tiger. Aircel is one of the biggest mobile phone providers in India. Earlier this year they launched the Save our Tiger campaign represented by a tiger cub called Stripey with whom the country promptly fell in love with. Prime time TV could barely be watched without Stripey and his 'I'm abandoned, please save me' eyes. Now abruptly, he has disappeared and taken his much talked about cuteness with him.

Aircel has engaged in some very slick marketing by making the campaign as high profile as it could afford - PR, media, social networking, celebrity support - the whole nine yards. Every TV-watching, net-savvy person in India now knows that only 1411 tigers exist in the wild. We know the company has tied up with WWF to give it some credibility. Some of us wonder if this is an attempt at a badly executed CSR effort.

Once you log onto the rather fancy website, you can 'join the roar' online i.e., Twitter, Facebook. You can 'be informed' about the latest tiger-related news. You can 'speak up' by apparently writing to editors of leading newspapers. And of course you can donate through the WWF site.

What seems specifically unclear to me remains the ultimate aim of the campaign. Was it started to: (a) create awareness? or (b) create the impression of corporate responsibility? or (c) give people the impression that Aircel is going to take a lead in saving the tiger? Since Project Tiger, which has been the most successful program in the 70s lost steam; tiger conservation in India has always had its lulls and rises. There has never been a concentrated effort to increase numbers by putting a check on poaching and habitat destruction. More importantly there has not been much transparency, advocacy or public involvement in the process. Every census releases varying numbers regarding tiger population - does Aircel explain how the number 1411 was arrived at?

Aircel's attempt at gathering public sympathy for the fate of India's national animal is admirable. The campaign however, regardless of whether it is CSR or not, is not strategically clever. It does really explain what the company itself is doing to save the tiger apart from throwing Stripey on the airwaves. The campaign would have infinitely more credibility if they could explain why it is really, truly important to save the tiger along with its habitat. Most unfortunately, the company does not galvanize on the campaign to further its image of CSR. The entire campaign looks like one quick brainstorm session resulting in the words 'tiger' and 'save' put together, how to publicize the issue with as much noise as possible... and then abruptly stop.

Conservation efforts are dependent on rate of biodiversity loss which is tied into economic losses. Stripey no matter how cute and how much celebrity support he garners, will not stir public sympathies for too long unless a holistic picture is provided. I hope someone from Aircel is reading this: more information is needed on their campaign objectives, overall picture of CSR  activities, how they plan on achieving these and where they're getting their tiger numbers from - for starters.

Photo Credit: Aircel 'Save the Tiger' Campaign