There's a Rang-Tan in My Bedroom

By Christmas Rang-tan had gone viral with 80 million views worldwide and over a million people signing the Greenpeace campaign petition.”

Rang-Tan There’s a

in My Bedroom

An animation written and art-directed by James Sellick 1994-2005 for Greenpeace last year, to highlight the threat to orangutans from deforestation in Indonesia, has inspired a new wave of eco-warriors and contributed to the world’s largest producer of palm oil committing to eliminate deforestation from its supply chain.

Due to the huge growth in supermarket products containing palm oil – everything from processed foods through to shampoo – the population of orangutans in Indonesia has more than halved since 1995. James, an advertising creative at London-based agency Mother, felt that hard facts and shocking imagery of deforestation were unlikely to get the message across, so he devised ‘Rang-tan’, an emotive story about a little girl who finds a mischievous orangutan in her bedroom. He explains: “It was a completely new approach for a project like this and Greenpeace were nervous at first. But they wanted palm oil to be as infamous as single-use plastics – so we had to do something different.”

Rang-tan, which has a voice-over by the actress Emma Thompson, was launched by Greenpeace last autumn. It caught the attention of frozen food retailer Iceland which, having committed to removing palm oil from its own brand products, arranged to screen an adapted version of Rang-tan on TV as part of its Christmas ad campaign. When Clearcast, the clearance body for British TV advertising, blocked the ad for being too political, Iceland decided to release Rang-tan to the public via a YouTube video. The controversy caused by the TV ban hit news headlines in November and led to Rang-tan being promoted on social media by celebrities and debated on television, including on The One Show, Good Morning Britain and This Morning. It even got parodied by comedian Russell Howard on Russell Howard’s Good News. By Christmas Rang-tan had gone viral with 80 million views worldwide and over a million people signing the Greenpeace campaign petition.

James says: “I was gutted when I found out that Rang-tan wasn’t going to be a Christmas TV ad, but the public were quick to get behind her. I was very proud to see some of my heroes sharing and talking about the film: Ricky Gervais, David Walliams and Simon Pegg were particular highlights. Environment Minister Michael Gove was another. The proudest moment though was when I found out that Wilmar, the world’s largest palm oil producer, had tightened monitoring and regulation of its suppliers, citing the story as a contributing factor. It is also amazing to see retailers, such as Ocado, start to make changes too.”

It was a completely new approach for a project like this and Greenpeace were nervous at first. But they wanted palm oil to be as infamous as singleuse plastics – so we had to do something different.”

The campaign has gone on to receive worldwide recognition from advertising bodies such as Annie, Webby, Creative Circle, Cannes Lions and D&AD. It has also led to James landing a literary contract to write the animation as a children’s picture story. There’s a Rang-Tan in My Bedroom, which includes a foreword by Emma Thompson, was published by Hachette in August 2019. Greenpeace’s executive director, John Sauven said: “Rang-tan has already made a huge difference to how much people know about the impact palm oil is having on rainforests, wildlife and the climate. With this beautiful book we hope to inspire thousands more children and their parents to learn about and care for the world’s forests and enable them to take action.”

As well as making a virtual-reality story for Greenpeace and writing more TV ads for his day-to-day clients at Mother, James is working on two new children’s books for Hachette and says:

“I would love to continue using my creative powers for good and hope to keep influencing and changing behaviour with my stories, whatever form they take.”