Find the rhinos at Sandton’s Gautrain station

You can now take a picture with a life-size baby rhino nuzzling its mother, as it flips away errant flies with its tail and ears – at Gautrain’s Sandton Station.

This is thanks to the much anticipated Sony Pictures Television, Picture This, campaign, which is devoted to raising global awareness for environmental issues by asking people to look deeper into the cause.

“The various Sony Picture Television networks worldwide support global causes in their respective regions, and for Africa, they chose to raise awareness of the plight of the rhino poaching scourge, and of course, other endangered species,” said Sonja Underwood, head of Sony Channels for Africa.

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The rhinos are virtual and are an amazing spectacle in the heart of Johannesburg’s financial and transport hub.

“We commissioned a television campaign, which illustrates the fragile existence of the rhino in particular– if we do not protect them, they will in future exist as animals in virtual space only,” added Underwood.

Dr Barbara Jensen-Vorster, director of communication for the Gautrain said everyone knew Africa’s Big Five, but one of the greatest engineering achievements on the continent is the swift and futuristic Gautrain.

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“We are proudly South African, and care about the environment. When we heard of the campaign, we invited Sony Pictures Television on board and they enabled the development of an application that creates the grazing rhino within the walls of the station,” Jensen-Vorster said.

The concept is simple but profoundly entertaining. You start by downloading the app once through the Gautrain turnstiles at Sandton station. Commuters need only pan their smartphones over the designated area to see the rhino’s forage placidly within the confines of the designated ‘savannah’ and by turning their smartphones around, they can snap a selfie with the rhino right behind them.

“It’s a great way to create awareness of the fragility of nature and the rhino in particular. It is educational and fun and, of course, like the Gautrain, ideally South African. It is great to see a brand like Sony recognise our endangered species,” Jensen-Vorster said.

The television campaign and the virtual app throws its combined weight behind the Rhino Action Group Effort (Rage) organisation, one of the most prominent supporters of the fight against poaching. The campaign will urge viewers and app users to visit the Rage website and to support the work they do.

“Just communicating the message is not enough. We looked for a credible and passionate partner to support this worthy cause, and Rage has all the credentials we were looking for,” Underwood said.

The campaign will run for several weeks on DStv and have a high rotation on the Sony Channel, 127 on DStv and Sony Max, 128 on DStv, while commuters can enjoy the thrill of the rhino app for the month of October.

The app will not be active during peak times on the Gautrain to prevent congestion, but will run outside peak times.