Happy Earth Day: Keep America Beautiful
jtherkal: This is a classic. Famous for being what, at the time, qualified as edgy, I think it’s partially responsible for curbing the popularity of littering. And I say popularity because littering used to be pretty popular. People used to drive down the highway, eat their McDonalds, then dump the whole bag out the window. Hey, someone else will clean it up. How else will drunks work off their community service sentence? Now that type of littering is virtually unheard of. At some point the public’s acceptance of littering turned to a strong aversion. Animals everywhere are a little sad they don’t get our Big Mac scraps.
But you have to wonder, why was the Indian really crying? Perhaps it wasn’t the litter. Perhaps it was seeing the land that was once belonged to his people; the land for which the white man slaughtered his kind and forced them to live in the most inhospitable areas of the country (i.e. Oklahoma), then tried to make him feel better by giving him a casino. Anyways, I don’t remember this particular ad from when I was little, but I do remember “Give a hoot, don’t pollute.” Advertising lesson #113: kids listen to owls. B+.
sjbooher: Wow, they really pulled out the big guns on this one. This sure does make you feel awful. I do not remember ever seeing this either, and I am not so sure how much impact it had on littering… but it was not from lack of effort. Sometimes, as the saying goes, though, you catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar — this might be too strong, where people have to try and block it out. It’s like those awful drunk driving PSAs that would air, that ended with some sweet, innocent kid dying… a lot of good those did. Of course, drinking is more fun than littering. C+.
Tags: american indian, crying, earth day, kab, keep america beautiful, litter