Over the May bank holiday, we arranged for hundreds of Hawksbill turtles to ‘come ashore’ on the beach at Bournemouth, England.The life-size card models were there to dramatise the slaughter of endangered turtles, killed so their shells can be made into souvenirs for tourists.The turtles were left on the beach from first light, for visitors to find and play with – as they turned them over they discovered that poachers do the same thing.This direct interaction with the 'media' really dramatised our message, and helped people understand the true horrors that these helpless creatures face.The stunt was organised to warn holiday-makers not to buy seemingly harmless combs, necklaces and other trinkets when abroad, and was intended to be so memorable that it could change behaviour months later when people next travelled abroad.

The public took to the stunt very warmly, with thousands of families and visitors stopping to investigate and interact with the turtles, generating a lot of feedback and enquiry on the IFAW website.As well as photos and videos, the public actually took away all the turtles at the end of the day, spreading our message to homes and schools far beyond the reach of the event itself.The stunt gained extensive free media coverage in press and radio, and even gained a feature on national TV the next morning, all for a very modest £4,000 spend.