Jan Creamer Leaves the Corporate World But Still Puts Her Knowledge to Work for a Charitable Organization
Budgeting, marketing campaigns, and meetings meetings meetings. Behind the scenes, charities and businesses have more than a few things in common.
“It’s all about communication,” says Jan Creamer, president and founder of Animal Defenders International. “Packaging a new campaign is a lot like packaging a new product. The key difference is we’re selling a set of beliefs.”
Today the international organization is making headlines with their recently released feature-length documentary, Lion Ark. The film focuses on the organization’s recent work banning traveling circuses in Bolivia, and relocating 25 lions from South America to a Colorado reserve.
ADI has been “selling” their beliefs since 1990, and in those 24 years the organization has created educational campaigns for all age levels, and worked to stop both animal testing and the fur industry. Their most recent project is the global campaign, “Stop Circus Suffering.”
It was this circus operation that led Creamer and her team into Bolivia. And now, the film on the great lion rescue has earned a nomination for Outstanding International Motion Picture at this weekend’s NAACP Image Awards.
“It’s a huge honor to be nominated by an organization like the NAACP because they’ve made such a huge difference in the world,” Creamer exclaims. In fact, she believes animal rights are the next logical step towards equality. “People have had to learn how to have respect for others not like us. Now we have to reassess the relationship between us and different species.”
But this film is bigger than animal rights. ADI worked in solidarity with the Bolivian government and President Evo Morales to ban the circuses and save the lions. “We were quite a mixture of people,” says Creamer. “Brits, Americans, Bolivian, Colombians, Peruvian, we all came together to help. All of us overcame language barriers and cultural differences during this project.” The rescue team’s unity is quite discernible throughout Lion Ark which critics have called a portrayal of the “human experience.”
Creamer, who worked as a graphic designer for corporate identity, came to animal rights activism accidentally. What started with a pamphlet about animal cruelty more than 30 years ago progressed into volunteering, and eventually snowballed into a new career. “It’s the most rewarding thing I’ve done with my life,” says Creamer. “You have to enjoy the media flow and the political work, but I wouldn’t give it up for anything. No two days are ever the same.”
Though Creamer has no regrets regarding her career switch, she’s grateful for her more traditional background. Be it budgeting, or putting together a campaign that delivers an accurate as well as marketable message to the media, she sees the business aspect in her work.
While the NAACP Awards Ceremony isn’t until this Saturday, February 22, Creamer and ADI have already moved on to their next project. They’re currently working with the Peruvian government on setting up a similar circus animal ban in Peru. “We’re hoping to bring those animals to the U.S. within the next year.” And the work goes on.
Photo Courtesy of Animal Defenders International
12TAGS: Documentary entertainment Lion Ark Women in Business