A Conversation with Wayne Pacelle
Allow me to introduce you to a good friend of mine. Wayne Pacelle is the former (and longtime) leader of The Humane Society of the United States, the current president of the Center for a Humane Economy, and proof positive that strategic advocacy can achieve great outcomes—including persuading some of the world’s largest global corporations to do the right thing.
His organization’s latest campaign, Kangaroos Are Not Shoes, launched six years ago with a simple but ambitious mission: to get the world’s biggest athletic shoe brands to stop using wild kangaroo skins in soccer cleats. And this year’s World Cup finally delivered the decisive victory. 1,246 players across 48 national teams competed in the games. Only a single player laced up kangaroo shoes.
I asked Wayne to give us a peek behind the scenes of the campaign and its origins. I think this is one of the more remarkable and underappreciated advocacy wins in recent memory. . . and a reminder that real change is possible, even in a moment when it can feel like many of our initiatives are under siege.