Championing Endangered Species Through 'Ugly' Campaigns, Condoms, Chocolate

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This week the blobfish was voted in as mascot of the Ugly Animal Preservation Society, an honor awarded through an online video campaign done in partnership with the U.K.'s National Science and Engineering Competition. It's one of a few creative outreach campaigns out there employed by activists who want to bring attention to the plight of endangered species.

The Ugly Animal Preservation Society is actually a project of British biologist and television personality Simon Watt. The campaign videos -- one for each nominated species -- includes an amusing 'endorsement' from a scientist or comedian about why they are endangered followed by an educational science-y bit from Watt.

Here’s the video that made the winning case for the blobfish, endorsed by British comic Paul Foot:

(I fear Mr. Foot’s comedy is perhaps a bit too British for me. Other election videos that

did

make me chuckle were for the

and the

. What can I say, potty humor + awesome British accents gets me every time.)

Other clever endangered species campaigns:

• Late last year we did a story about the Center for Biological Diversity's 'endangered species condoms' project. The group creates and distributes the condoms which come in specially designed packages with cheeky rhymes like, 'Don't go bare… panthers are rare' and 'Wrap with care… save the polar bear.'

• This week I ran across a post when I was poking around the Urban Pollination Project's site. (Check out the multimedia feature we posted on their bumblebee citizen science project.) It reminded me there's also an Endangered Species Chocolate company who also uses packaging to educate people about different endangered animals. A portion of the environmentally-focused company's profits goes to conservation groups.

-- Toni Tabora-Roberts