By: Maddie Sanders
National Geographic started this campaign where they photo shopped images of wild animals to make the look like they’re taking mirror selfies. They point of the campaign was to show that with the rise of Instagram and amazing smartphone cameras, good images can be taken by anyone. However, in the bottom right of all of the images is a quote that says, “There are lots of terrible animal pictures out there” poking fun at the fuzzy and out of focus pictures that people take of their cats at home. National Geographic wants people to know that, yes, anyone can take a good picture, but National Geographic’s photographers take the best ones.
I think National is trying to reach new readers, most likely Millennials or Gen Z, who are constantly taking selfies and photos on their devices but who also can appreciate a professional photo.
They want people to remember that although anyone can be a photographer now-a-days, there are real professional photographers who go out into the wild and sometimes even risk their lives to take amazing photos of animals in the wild and their work shouldn’t be underappreciated.
I think it makes sense that they would do a campaign in this way because they are known for incorporating animals in satirical ways in campaigns to draw in consumers (who doesn’t want to look at a cute panda, right?) and once they’ve been drawn in by the cute animal they read and learn more about the cause they are advocating for.
The best way that their success could be measured would be by the number of new subscriptions, both online and hard copy, and also the number of views on their website as well.
#panda, national, geographic, Instagram, selfie, photographer, owned, media
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