Tiger Beer erases its own tiger to save real ones — the '3890 Tigers' selfie campaign

Tiger Beer's identity is a tiger — while the real animal was down to an estimated 3,890 in the wild in 2016, driven by habitat loss and the illegal tiger trade. The brand wanted to fight that, not just sponsor it.

A beer named after a tiger gives up its tiger: the icon leaves the label, and six artists turn fans' selfies into the missing tiger so every post restocks the image.

Tiger Beer removed the tiger from its logo for the first time in 84 years, launched a six-year global WWF partnership with a $1 million donation, and commissioned six artists worldwide to make tiger selfie backgrounds. Fans posted #3890Tigers selfies that put tigers back into circulation; celebrities removed profile photos and reappeared as tigers. In 2018 it extended into the Rare Stripes fashion collection with Kenzo.

The #3890Tigers hashtag spread globally around World Tiger Day 2017 with celebrity participation, the $1M donation funded WWF's TX2 goal of doubling wild tigers by 2022, and the work is archived in Cannes Lions' The Work library.

In 2016 the best estimate put the world's wild tiger population at about 3,890, their habitat shrunk by over 90% and demand for tiger products still fueling poaching. Tiger Beer, the Singapore lager that had carried a tiger on its label since 1933, decided the honest response was to show what a world without tigers looks like — on its own pack.

Launched in 2017, the '3890 Tigers' campaign removed the tiger from Tiger Beer's branding for the first time in 84 years and put a six-year, $1 million global partnership with WWF behind the TX2 goal of doubling wild tiger numbers by 2022. The public mechanic was selfies: six artists from different countries created tiger-inspired backgrounds, and fans posted #3890Tigers selfies that repopulated the missing animal across social feeds. On World Tiger Day, celebrities including Megan Fox and Zachary Quinto took down their profile photos and reappeared as tigers.

The campaign opened with a public art exhibition in Singapore — commissioned artists including Nick Gentry and Hua Tunan travelled to Cambodia's Srepok Wildlife Sanctuary, where tigers had last been seen ten years earlier, and turned the experience into the campaign's artwork. In 2018 the idea extended into fashion: the Rare Stripes collection with Kenzo, under the same WWF partnership.

The brand sacrificed its own icon, making the threat to real tigers tangible at the shelf.

Selfies gave the public a one-step way to 'return' the tiger, converting awareness into participation.

A named number (3,890) made an abstract extinction risk specific and repeatable.

The six-year commitment and $1M donation made it a partnership, not a one-off stunt.

The strongest cause campaign a brand can run is one that costs the brand its most valuable asset — removing your own icon proves the stakes better than any slogan.

The partnership ran its six-year course alongside WWF's TX2 programme; wild tiger estimates later rose to about 5,574. The 2018 Rare Stripes collection with Kenzo extended the idea into fashion, and the campaign is archived in Cannes Lions' The Work library.