Dean Schneider Hires People To Create His “Inspirational Stories”

Because there’s been a great deal of discussion the past week over media sites publishing false, misleading, or unverified information promoting Dean Schneider, and his Hakuna Mipaka, CWW wanted to address why it’s happening. While it’s commonsense to research the proposed content of an article you intend to publish on a media website, the current state of the Internet, and social media in general, favors the quick and the eye-catching. So when there’s a buzz word or subject flying around, and you’re presented with beautiful graphics, and photos, accompanied by the ideal “Cinderella Story” most content writers for media sites pounce on the opportunity.

If the images and/or videos are enough to tell the story with minimal text, that’s even better, because it provides the content writers of media sites with virtually their entire post, which allows for a faster turnaround. In some cases, writers are hired cut-rate. This means that they’re producing posts designed to bring in traffic, not contain verified information, and even worse that quantity-over-quality glut forces even ethical media sites to rush in producing their own stories, lest they be plowed under on the freeway of social media’s momentary attention span.

This is one reason that brands hire content teams dedicated to strategizing, creating, and promoting content that advertises that brand. Enter Dean Schneider and his “inspirational” fairytale of selling everything he owned to head off “McCandless style” into Africa to “rescue mutilated animals” or “Save Wild Animals From Poachers” depending on the headline. Of course, just as with McCandless, the reality is far, far less glamorous than the romanticized fictional account. True outdoors(wo)men and Alaskans loathe the hyper-idealized idolization of Chris McCandless (if you don’t know who he is, you can read about him here) which causes continuous problems every year, and has ended in multiple deaths. In the same vein, true conservationists loathe the hyper-idealized “peaceable kingdom” mythos contrived and promoted by entities like Dean Schneider and Eduardo Serio.

When The Epoch Times published a longer, more flushed-out article titled nearly the same as Bored Panda’s fake one, and less than a week after the entire Bored Panda debacle, CWW was promptly notified of the new ET’s article. (We reached out to ET and they removed the article, though they refrained from telling us how they obtained the information within their article, or whether they’d been contacted by Schneider or his staff about it) When we posted about the article, however, commenting that it almost seemed as though Dean was just issuing statements to media sites and those sites were just posting his content without researching him or verifying anything, at least one comment appeared immediately on our post declaring pointedly that:

“He had nothing to do with this. Apparently there’s a few articles being done about him but most haven’t even approached him for an interview.”

The comment was then deleted before CWW had the chance to reply and ask if the commenter had spoken directly with Schneider or his PR crew, since they were so emphatic that no one had “even approached him for an interview”. which is intimate information, indeed.

What this commenter, and all of Schneider’s fans, and defenders don’t seem to realize, or understand, is that Schneider literally advertises jobs for content creators to work with him. Although the details are listed under a tab labels “Jobs” on the Hakuna Mipaka website, salary is not included. This is, apparently, one of those “I’ll pay you in exposure” deals. Because, you know, artists don’t need or deserve money, they should just be grateful for the chance to get some exposure. The date on the current ad is for December 2018, but the stipulations indicate that whoever was “hired” could stay for three months, meaning that if Schneider hires a new person for the job, a new ad will be forthcoming sometime in March or April.

The fact that Schneider is using a photo of his pet monkey sitting on a camera to advertise a job for someone to take photos of Schneider and his captive wild pets tells you everything you need to know about his exploitation of captive wild animals.

Even more brow-raising than the lack of salary for this “job” is the lack of expertise required. Expertise in big cats, ungulates, captive wild animals, animal husbandry in general, or anything pertaining to running a sanctuary supposedly devoted to the care of captive wild animals, that is. On the animal husbandry/biology/science spectrum, the only “expertise” you need for Schneider’s “job” is appreciation of nature, and respect/openheartedness toward animals. That’s it. Easy peasy.

Not so easy peasy when you continue to all the important photo and video editing and creation skills you need, like advanced knowledge in Adobe Premier Pro, Lightroom and Photoshop, basic knowledge in Adobe Indesign, Illustrator, experience in videography, and a background in video and photography projects, along with the ability to work on all of the above on your own, and in a timely fashion, at the whim of your “employer”. None of which matters, of course, in caring for captive wild animals, but all of which are essential for creating a vivid, marketable brand to sell to the public on social media platforms, and other media outlets.

The chance to play with captive wild animals, take great photos you can use later, and be near Dean himself stand-in for monetary payment in this "job".

Branding 101: create great content, and promote it.

If it weren’t for photos and videos on social media, Schneider literally wouldn’t exist to the outside world. It’s the only thing he has making him “relevant” to the millennial crowd. Well, that, and the gullibility of the younger generation hooked to their computers and living vicariously through the exploits of their social media heroes. But to be a commerce conservationist who relies on social media stardom, and revenue created through partnerships, paying volunteers and video views, that’s all Schneider needs to maintain his “relevancy”. Great content, telling a great story (real or fabricated) which is distributed widely, and directs people to come love him and his pages.

Articles praising Dean Schneider and containing very similar content, with very similar titles, are cropping up because that’s the entire point of promoting a brand. Presenting a unified front of your company or venture. Schneider’s intention is to sway viewers to support him through the creation of content intentionally designed to promote him and what he does. And in Schneider’s own words:

*** Headliner and foot banner images, Dean Schneider