Smokey Bear PSA ad – July 13, 1972

Smokey Bear has been a favorite advertising mascot of mine since childhood (probably because we were a camping family), as well as a recurring topic on this blog. So when I saw the above page from the July 13, 1972 Journal with a small Smokey ad used as a space filler, I knew I had to post it.

When I was a kid, you often saw Smokey Bear PSAs tossed in with the Saturday morning cartoons, or early on Sunday morning TV. I think stations were provided the commercials for free, and could air them wherever they wanted.

You don't see Smokey too often today (at least not on GRIT TV, which I watch all the time). When he does appear, he's advocating the prevention of wildfires, not forest fires. But fifty years ago, he was still on message, and a simple closeup of his face accompanied by his tagline was a powerful reminder to be careful in the woods with matches, cigarettes, etc.

Smokey is still a busy bruin in the 2000s. The current campaign (which you can see on his website), seems to be moving away from the idea of Smokey as a real, live bear that wears pants and carries a shovel. Instead, he is presented as a digital entity, literally a floating, disembodied head that speaks in (ugh) celebrity voices, thus destroying the image that was carefully built and reinforced over the last 75+ years.

Here's a screen grab.

I suppose the current ads are slightly better than the ones from ten years ago, which featured Smokey as a shaggy, menacing, CGI character that looked like something that needed to be shot with a tranquilizer dart and relocated to a remote wilderness.