Don’t Teach the Animals
A public awareness campaign from the City of Toronto.
Brand Manifesto
Toronto's urban wildlife has its own systems, its own instincts, and its own ways of getting by. The raccoon that knows how to open your green bin is resourceful. The raccoon that knows how to order takeout is a different problem entirely. When we bring wild animals into our habits and our spaces, we do not help them — we replace what they know with what we know, and what we know has consequences they were never meant to deal with. Toronto's wildlife is thriving. The best thing we can do is let it.
Creative Brief
Objective: Remind Torontonians that habituating urban wildlife to human behaviour, spaces, and knowledge has unintended consequences for the animals' wellbeing and survival. Animals featured: raccoons, Canada geese, red foxes, eastern grey squirrels, coyotes, beavers.
Tone: Completely straight. The images and situations carry the humour. The copy never winks.
Executions
01 — OOH Series: Illustrated Poster Campaign
Six posters. Photorealistic illustrations of Toronto animals in recognizably human situations. City of Toronto logo in the corner. Copy is completely straight.
Poster 1: A raccoon at a kitchen table, reading a cereal box, looking concerned about the ingredients.
"Gerald was fine before we taught him to read labels."
Poster 2: A Canada goose in the passenger seat of a car, staring out the window, unimpressed.
"Sandra flew 4,000 kilometres every year without a single car ride. She was better off."
Poster 3: An eastern grey squirrel at a farmers market stand, pointing suspiciously at a bag of acorns.
"Derek just wants to know if they're gluten free."
Poster 4: A red fox at a networking event, holding a glass of wine, looking at someone's business card.
"Renée had a territory. It worked. We gave her a LinkedIn profile."
Poster 5: A beaver in a Home Hardware lumber yard, clipboard in hand, comparing wood grades with great seriousness.
"Michel was building before the building code existed. Now he's not sure his work is up to standard."
Poster 6: A squirrel in an IKEA, standing in the flat-pack aisle, holding assembly instructions upside down.
"All she wanted was a place to store her acorns. We taught her about storage solutions."
02 — PSA Radio Script
30-second spot. Deadpan announcer throughout.
VO: This is a message from the City of Toronto.
When you feed a wild animal, it forgets how to feed itself. When you teach a wild animal, it forgets something harder to name.
The raccoon in your alley doesn't need a nutritional label. The squirrel in your park didn't ask about gluten. The beaver was doing structural engineering long before there was a permit process.
Don't teach the animals. Let them be.
A message from the City of Toronto Parks, Forestry, and Recreation Division.
03 — Social Campaign: "Before and After"
Instagram carousel. Each slide: an animal before and after human influence.
Slide 1: Before: a raccoon foraging with focused purpose at 2am. After: a raccoon in a grocery store, overwhelmed by the cheese aisle.
"This didn't have to happen."
Slide 2: Before: a Canada goose in purposeful flight over Lake Ontario. After: a Canada goose in the backseat of a rideshare, staring out the window.
"She used to know exactly where she was going."
Slide 3: Before: a red fox hunting in the Don Valley, alert and alive. After: a red fox at a networking event, holding a business card, looking unsure what to do with it.
"He had a system. It was a good system."
Final slide: City of Toronto logo.
"Don't teach the animals. toronto.ca/wildlife"
04 — Campaign Tagline Variations
Six directions for the campaign line.
"Don't teach the animals. They were doing fine."
"They have a system. Leave them to it."
"The geese knew where they were going. They still do. Let's keep it that way."
"Humans are animals too. Look how that turned out."
"Don't feed them. Don't teach them. Let them be better than us."