On July 23rd, Elon Musk announced the rebranding Twitter to X with a post. Musk used social media to spread his decision and made it immediately a PR case. The world couldn’t believe what was happening. But what was even more unbelievable, was the fact that the death of a virtual animal species caused a bigger outcry than the extinction of vast numbers of species on our planet. The WWF wanted to react in an appropriate way. On social media. Turned PR. With 0€ budget.

The WWF is committed to the worldwide protection of species in order to protect the earth's biodiversity and thus the ecological balance and ensure the future of mankind.

As too many people still are not aware of the massive and rapidly advancing threat, the extinction of our animal species and the subsequent threat to humans, the WWF uses every opportunity to draw people's attention to the important issues of this world and to deal with them.

On July 23rd, Elon Musk killed the little blue bird when he rebranded Twitter to X. The world couldn’t believe what was happening. But what was even more unbelievable, was the fact that the death of a virtual animal species caused a bigger outcry than the extinction of vast numbers of species on our planet. The WWF wanted to react in an appropriate way.

On July 23rd, Elon Musk killed the little blue bird when he rebranded Twitter to X. The world couldn’t believe what was happening. But what was even more unbelievable, was the fact that the death of a virtual animal species caused a bigger outcry than the extinction of vast numbers of species on our planet.

So, on the next day, we turned Twitter’s rebranding into a pamphlet for species’ conservation. We therefore created a timeline with the evolution of the Twitter logo to the rebranding of X. A simple image that disarmingly made visible the parallels of the death of the Twitter logo to the real extinction of species through the message: “Protect our wildlife, before it’s too late.”

When Elon Musk killed Larry, the blue Twitter bird, the strategy for the WWF to react to the extinction of the virtual bird and turn it into a pamphlet for species conservation was already rolled out. The re-post came via social media and chose the same media as Musk used to reach the digital world. We answered a social post with a social post, turning a business announcement into a strong message for the conservation of species and make a social conversation a PR case.

On June 23rd, Elon Musk buried Twitter with a post. On the next day the WWF responded. For that we created a social media post with a timeline. We showed the evolution of the Twitter logo to the rebranding of X. A simple image that disarmingly made visible the parallels of the death of the Twitter logo to the real extinction of species through the message: “Protect our wildlife, before it’s too late.”

The post immediately went viral: Originally designed for the DACH region, it got translated into 26 languages. The press jumped on it and turned this simple post into a global conversation. The post received more than 2 million likes on Instagram, more than 200,000 on Twitter, sorry, on X, and more than 800,000 likes on LinkedIn. The campaign equaled media spendings of more than 20 million € with 0€ spent.