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International wildlife charity Born Free has launched a national Digital Out of Home (DOOH) campaign calling for an end to the captivity of great apes in UK and European zoos.

Great Apes 'Not for a Cage'  features still photography brought to life through digital animation to deliver the message that wild animals should be Born Free, not for a cage or public entertainment. 

The wild gorillas featured were photographed in their natural habitat in Limbe, Cameroon by George Logan who worked with Born Free and Jake Hickman at postproduction house Neon Beast to visualise the disparity between a caged and free existence.

The screen space was donated and planned by Ocean Outdoor under its Drops in the Ocean programme which awards a percentage of the company’s annual UK revenue in advertising space to selected environmental causes.

Breaking on 31st July for 14 days, the full motion campaign is appearing on five screens across five cities including Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester and London.

George Logan said, “When I was a child, my fascination with wild animals would regularly take me to the local zoo. However, I couldn’t understand why I always left feeling a bit sad. Years later I would understand what I had been seeing and feeling. The demeanour and behaviour of captive wild animals is unrecognisable to those fortunate enough to live their lives in their natural habitats. It just doesn’t compare.  And there are some animals which are really very unsuited to suffering life in a cage.”

The campaign coincides with the publication of Born Free’s  new report, ‘Our Captive Cousins: The Plight of Great Apes in Zoos’. Published today (31st July) the report is an indictment of the ethical, scientific and practical arguments which support the captivity of gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos and orangutans in European zoos.

Dame Virginia McKenna, Born Free co-founder and trustee, said,  “When I see a great ape looking at me from behind the bars or reinforced glass in a zoo, something in me falters. Their eyes reflect a depth of feeling we instinctively recognise, connect and empathise with. We share their sense of a loss of freedom, of purpose, of self. These intelligent, feeling beings do not belong in cages. We must find the courage simply to say: the keeping of our closest cousins in captivity for our entertainment must end.” 

Earlier this month the charity marked the 10th anniversary of the notorious killing of Cecil the Lion by trophy hunters with a seven day London wide DOOH campaign calling for a UK ban on the import of hunting trophies.

Appearing across both of London’s Westfield retail and leisure destinations, Canary Wharf and Battersea Power Station, ‘Born Free. Not For Sport’ depicted vulnerable wild animals which frequently fall prey to the guns of big game hunters.

Ocean Outdoor senior marketing manager Shona Dobson said: “Using our outdoor space to start difficult conversations or confront bad practice is a chance for us to work collectively and harmoniously to preserve the natural world and the planet for generations to come.”

Ocean and Born Free last worked together in 2017 on Tank Free, a campaign by WCRS to free captive orcas which won Ocean’s annual Digital Creative Competition followed by a Silver Cannes Lion, and multiple other creative awards.