WWF and Saatchi & Saatchi France swap the sterile school bell for the sounds of nature
Today, children spend half as much time outdoors as they did 20 years ago. The less time they spend outside, the less they connect with nature. And the less they know nature, the less likely they are to protect it tomorrow. How do we bridge this widening gap and bring the wonder of the wild back into their world?
The wake-up call we didn’t know we needed
We all know the sound. For generations, the school bell has acted as the ultimate daily jolt. The dull, metallic clang yanks children out of their daydreams into rigid, routine blocks.
But for the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Saatchi & Saatchi France, they looked at this mundane piece of daily choreography and asked a brilliant question: What if, instead of sounding an alarm, we sounded an awakening?
With Call of Nature initiative, WWF and Saatchi & Saatchi France have done something exciting. By swapping the everyday buzz of the classroom bell for the actual, vivid sounds of the wild, they have turned an ordinary transition into a daily moment of curiosity.
A call was launched to every school in France
The creative campaign was launched nationwide in schools. From May 18 to 22, WWF is rolling out Call of Nature in more than 4,000 cities and over 6,300 schools in France. In this initiative, traditional school bells are replaced with real animal sounds: the Boreal lynx on Monday, the whiskered tern on Tuesday, the wolf on Thursday, and the sperm whale to close the week.
A sound invitation to go outside, observe, and explore
In total, 650,000 kids will answer the Call of Nature. Throughout the week, primary school children will discover the nature around them through educational kits provided to teachers, featuring fun, immersive activities such as blind tests, stories, quizzes, games, and dedicated content for each animal.
An experience extending beyond the classroom
WWF is also extending the experience into homes, with a dedicated playlist available on streaming platforms that lets families discover animal sounds and immersive stories together. At the same time, collectible cards featuring the campaign’s animal species will be available to order on wwf.fr. And for the luckiest participants, three hidden Panda cards in selected packs will give families the chance to win a unique experience aboard the Blue Panda, WWF’s boat, exploring the sperm whale habitat. It is an initiative by WWF and Saatchi & Saatchi France to reconnect children with nature, starting today and returning every year.
When school bells echo the wild
The pace of modern life often keeps children enclosed, far from the world outside. Sometimes, it overlooks something just as needed, giving them the space to connect with the nature around them, to take root in the world that sustains us all. By introducing the voices of the wild into the rhythm of the school day, WWF is not just teaching kids about nature; it is teaching them to be curious and to coexist with it.
