Will you let your children inherit a world without tigers?

"I'm worth more dead than alive."  That gut-punch of a line from Save Wild Tigers' Ray the Rug sets the tone for a six-minute-plus visceral assault on our complacency. British actor Ray Winstone, *as* a tiger-skin rug, delivers a powerful monologue that lays bare the brutal reality of the $20 billion illegal wildlife trade. 

The monologue is brilliant as it’s brutal. Animal poaching and the insatiable human greed are not new horrors, but this film throws them in your face, bit by agonising bit. Ray’s story —from witnessing his mother's murder ("she was murdered by a human") to his own horrific end("my meat was sold...my bones crushed...my penis sold as an aphrodisiac") —is sad as it is sickening. At no point in this powerful 6-minute-plus monologue will the viewer turn away from the casual cruelty of poaching and the callous disregard that humans have for animal life. The savagery mirrors the violence itself.

The script is dark and poignant. Ray's feeble attempt at a joke, "What do you get if you cross a tiger with a sheep? Stripey sweeter"—is twisted and raw and points to the human carnage that has resulted in the extinction of 97% of wild tigers. He whispers, —"Today, only 7% of our tiger forests are still intact"—lamenting the death rattle for a dying world.  "Sorry, it just got really dark in here," he adds, understanding the chilling reminder of the tragedy.

Tigers are extinct in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, teetering on the brink in China, Malaysia, Thailand, and Myanmar.  4,900 remain.  The campaign—a global rollout—is a global collaboration between Perth-based Monster Sauce, Copenhagen’s Worth Your While, and Smoke & Mirrors Bangkok. It is also a rejection of the notion that long-form is dead. Ray the Rug commands every second of attention, not with fleeting images, but with a narrative that refuses to let go.

Ray's final plea—"Don't let your children grow up in a world without wild tigers"—is not a question, a desperate cry, a damn threat! The film's beauty lies in its refreshing visual treatment (a far cry from similar wildlife ads based on stock imagery and visuals resembling a Nat Geo documentary), its unflinching honesty and refusal to sanitise the violence. It's a challenge, a call to action. Because if humans let tigers slip through their bl**dy fingers, what's the future for the rhino, the pangolin, the orangutan?
 
"A tiger can't change its stripes, but you can, humans," Ray spits. 

Watch the film.

Then act. Because the alternative is unthinkable.

CREDITS:

Voice Over- Ray Winstone
Executive Creative Director - Steve Back, MONSTER SAUCE
Executive Producer - Simon Clinton, Founder The Clinton Partnership / Save Wild Tigers
Associate Producer - Jaime Winstone
MONSTER SAUCE
Chief Executive Officer - John Driscoll           
Chief Creative Officer - Steve Back
WORTH YOUR WHILE
Creative Director and Partner - Tim Pashen
Creative Director and Partner - Lukas Lund
Creative - Alexander Winge Leisner
Creative - Scott Zuliani
SMOKE & MIRRORS
A tag company
Director Mohammad Ali Shakeri
Executive Producer - Matthew Szabo
Technical Director - Masoud Taghi Momeni        
Technical Director - Amin Yavarimoghadam              
Art Director - Amir hahabi
Animator - Arash Ehsan
Rigger Mehdi - Zahed Mousavi
Grooming Amin - Yavarimoghadam
Compositing - Masoud Taghi Momeni
Look Development Artist - Boonsiri Nuchnomboon              
Producer - Jeremy Davenport
CG Producer - Natdanai Dilogsumpun
SUPERSONIC
Sound Designer - Sebastian Vaskio
LUKE RENARD STUDIO
Original Ray Winstone Direction - Jaime Winstone
Original Ray Winstone Recording - Luke Renard
DEEP SEA CREATIVE
Jon Case

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