Spokesbear for the U.S. Forest Service

K. Davidson 1

Smokey Bear:

Spokesbear for the U.S. Forest Service

Katelyn Davidson

Junior Historical Paper K. Davidson 2

For nearly sixty years, Smokey the Bear has served as a symbol for forest fire prevention by decorating posters, signs, comic books, commercials, logos, and ads. He has been seen in classrooms, fairs, forests and festivals all over the United States. Since debuting with his simple

message, “Only you can prevent forest

fires”, this distinguished bear has helped

reduce the number of forest fires across the

United States by 80% (United States

Department of Agriculture Forest Service

pg. 1840). Created in 1944, Smokey has

become a national icon as popular as

Mickey Mouse and Ronald McDonald (Fire

Watch 5). Smokey the Bear is the key to

understanding the importance of forest fire

prevention. His message has been taught to

American children for the past three 1985 Smokey the Bear Poster generations. Smokey is the centerpiece of the longest running ad campaign in American history (SmokeyBear.com). He is credited with reducing man-made forest fires, and he has effectively increased public awareness.

In the years before the campaign, forest fires devastated America’s woodlands. Forest fires were responsible for the destruction of twenty to fifty million acres of forests annually.

They were the leading cause of forest reduction (United States Department of Agriculture Forest

Service pg. 1840). According to Marsha Kearney, the U.S. Forest Service Supervisor for Florida,

“Few people realized that 90% of these fires were caused by humans’ carelessness.” As bad as K. Davidson 3 this seems, Americans did not understand the importance of forest fire prevention until they were face-to-face with World War II.

America’s wake-up call occurred in February 1942, nearly two months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Off the coast of southern California, a

Japanese submarine surfaced and fired a barrage of shells that hit an oil refinery not far from the Los

Padres National Forest (SmokeyBear.com). The forest,

1.9 million acres, is the third largest in America. Many Submarine Attack Americans were shocked that the war had actually hit 1942 their homeland (Defenders of Wildlife). A concern about further attacks rose among the citizens, and there was a fear that enemy shells exploding in the forests of the Pacific Coast could easily set off forest fires. With many of the firefighters

involved in the war effort, few men were available to fight the

fires. It was feared that many lives would be lost, and the timber

supply (timber was a primary commodity and natural resource for

battleships, gunstocks, and packing crates for military transports)

for the war effort would be depleted (SmokeyBear.com).

In light of this, the Forest Service organized the

Wartime Forest Fire Prevention Campaign in 1942 with the

Early anti-wildfire assistance of the Wartime Advertising Council. The group poster 1943 focused for several years on the connection between the war effort and the prevention of forest fires. The Forest Service spent $43,000 on pamphlets, bookmarks, and posters. Advertising agency Lord & Thomas (which changed to Foote, Cone & K. Davidson 4

Belding on January 1, 1943) developed the marketing materials, the Ad Council coordinated the national distribution of the materials, and the Association of State Foresters handled state and local distribution (United States Department pg. 1837). The campaign was unsuccessful because its scare tactics were not well received. Many schools decided against displaying the frightening posters (SmokeyBear.com).

In 1944, because of the negative response to the initial ad campaign, the Forest

Service decided that a softer image was needed. The Forest Service petitioned Disney for the use of Bambi (a deer from the 1944 Disney animated classic whose mother dies is a forest fire) in its

ads for one year (Cockrill 218). The ads were a huge success, but

there was still the problem of finding a new mascot after the year

was over.

The task force considered many animals before finally

picking a bear. There were various candidates: squirrels,

chipmunks, and owls. The group agreed that a bear was strong, Bambi anti-wildfire poster powerful, and could be recognized more easily than a deer or a 1944 squirrel. They also agreed that each year, Smokey’s focus would alternate between “green” and “red”. Green years focused on the beauty of forests and sought to inspire people to keep them in pristine condition. Red years emphasized the destructive powers of fire with posters featuring homeless animals and a stern, scolding Smokey (United States

Department pg. 1840). “Our sole objective was to find a way to tell the forest fire On August 9, 1944, the first prevention story most effectively… We learned very quickly that animals were effective in getting people poster of Smokey Bear was -especially young people- to react. -Bill Bergoffen (United States Department pg. 1840) released. The Cooperative K. Davidson 5

Forest Fire Prevention (CFFP) campaign (the

new name of the Wartime Forest Fire

Prevention campaign) had officially begun.

Smokey Bear was first drawn by Albert

Staehle, and was named in honor of Joe

“Smokey” Martin, a fearless New York

firefighter and hero from 1919 to 1930 (Fire

Watch 5). His eyes were enormous and his

fur looked like a huge brown blanket wrapped

over his body. The poster depicted a bear,

First Smokey Bear Poster wearing jeans and a ranger hat, pouring a

bucket of water onto a campfire. It took nearly a year to complete the entire idea, but the finished product was enormously successful.

Although the ads were created for the public, they were an immediate hit among children.

In 1946, Rudolph Wendelin began to draw

Smokey. Wendelin is responsible for the modern day look of Smokey (United States Department pg. 1840).

Additionally, by 1947, Smokey’s message had been created; “Remember, only you can prevent forest fires.” One of the first posters with the It became the new campaign slogan, and it first appeared slogan 1948 on a poster shortly thereafter.

By the late 1940s, Smokey had branched out into television and radio. Voiced by Jackson K. Davidson 6

Weaver, Smokey was heard regularly on the radio with celebrities such as Bing Crosby, Roy

Rogers, and Billy Grey. His name was changed by the hit theme song “Smokey the Bear” which was written by Steve Nelson and Jack Rollins in 1952. The “the” in his name was added between “Smokey” and “Bear” to keep the rhythm (Ravenel 59+). His song was heard in each of his commercials.

Smokey and his slogan rapidly gained popularity and success. However, the real jump starter of the campaign was a four-pound bear cub. Six years after Smokey began to help prevent forest fires (1950), a wildfire swept through the Capitan Mountains of New Mexico.

There, a four-pound bear cub was found clutching a burned tree. He was badly burned on his paws and hind legs. As the bear was restored to full health, he gained national attention because he was a bear, like Smokey, who had been directly affected by a forest fire. The small bear was brought to the National Zoo in Washington D.C., where the cub became a living symbol of

Smokey the Bear. Because he had survived a horrible forest fire, there could have been no better way to communicate to people the importance of forest fire prevention than using this little bear.

The message of the new, living mascot, “Only you can prevent forest fires,” quickly gained popularity. In 1952, Smokey made the cover of Newsweek (SmokeyBear.com). By the early 1950s, human-caused wildfires had been cut in half, even though ten times more people visited the forests in the 1950s than in the 1940s (Fire Watch 4).

As Smokey’s popularity increased, his look changed. His fur and nose became shorter, and his claws turned to fingers. Even his cartoon eyes were replaced with more human ones. In the 1960s, Smokey starred in his “The idea was that he needed to be more human to own hour-long Thanksgiving Day communicate his message… The claws eventually became fingers. He could point. He could carry a special narrated by James shovel. He couldn’t do that with paws.” -Rudolph Wendelin (United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service pg. 1840 K. Davidson 7

Cagney. In that same decade, he also starred Saturday mornings in his very own cartoon show.

By the late 1960s, Bambi was back on the scene with Smokey in a short commercial.

Concurrently, new posters of Smokey the Bear were issued. In 1961, a Smokey Bear Museum opened in Capitan, New Mexico, the same place the Smokey cub was found. In 1964, Smokey was given his own zip code, 20252, because of the enormous number of letters pouring in from all over the United States who understood Smokey’s message (United States Department pg.

1837). People finally understood the importance of forest fire prevention. At the end of the

1960s, there had been a 26% decrease of forest fires since the beginning of the campaign

Forest Fire Trends

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(Wildfires).

His amazing popularity continued through the 1970s. Smokey the Bear still talked to celebrities on the radio and new commercials were released. Smokey’s amazing success extended into classrooms across the United States. A big, strong bear would put on a live show about forest fire prevention for the children of elementary schools across America. Smokey had received such public recognition that on June 22, 1974, Congress passed a law taking Smokey out of public domain and placed him under the control of the Secretary of Agriculture. The act K. Davidson 8 stated that he had become a public service announcement (United States Department pg. 1840).

In the 1980s, the decade of the Challenger and Chernobyl disasters, the Smokey poster design changed and the message varied. For example, the poster to the right includes only

Smokey’s head and the words “think” and “thanks”. In 1984, a postage stamp was created in honor of Smokey’s 40th birthday (SmokeyBear.com).

Not everyone was fond of Smokey the Bear. Scientists and ecologists believed that naturally caused forest fires were good, and that the slogan was too extreme and overprotective.

They believed that the words “forest fires” suggested that all forest fires were awful, even natural ones. After much argument in the early

1990s, the Forest Service’s policy on forest fires was changed to allow naturally caused fires to burn (United States Department pg.

1839). In April 2001, the slogan was changed to, “Only you can prevent wildfires.”

The scientists were correct. Technically speaking, almost all forests need fire. Fire is a natural part of the forest’s ecosystem. Smokey the Bear poster 1982 Naturally caused fires help the forest by ridding it of harmful insects and by burning away flammable undergrowth. Some forests even need fire to recycle nutrients back into the soil or to eliminate dead growth to allow new growth. Fires caused by natural events like lightening strikes, or by controlled burns help the forests to do this. Without the fire, a forest will not be K. Davidson 9 able to grow properly (The Advertising Council).

By the time the policy of the Forest Service was changed, the ad campaign had already done unintentional damage. Weeds and pests were thriving, and the risks of dangerous wildfires were great. Over thirty-nine million acres of forests were at risk nationwide. If a lightning bolt were to hit the flammable underbrush, a raging forest fire would start that had the potential to

cause permanent property damage or death (Fire Watch

Nowadays, Smokey is still keeping America

safe from forest fires. His popularity contends with

fictional characters such as Bugs Bunny and Mickey

Mouse. Ninety-five percent of American adults and

77% of American children between the ages of five and

thirteen know of Smokey’s message (The Ad Council).

Smokey the Bear was such an inspiration that he sparked Woodsy Owl the idea of Woodsy Owl (a very knowledgeable owl about pollution whose slogan was, “Give a hoot, don’t pollute) and Bert the Turtle (the turtle that starred in “Duck and Cover”, a show about nuclear attack, which aired in 1950 across the United

States of America). Because of Smokey’s success, other countries began using animals as campaigning mascots. For example, Australia invented a Smokey Koala. Japan created a firefighting squirrel, Ecuador has a firefighting parrot, and

Canada made a Woodsy Owl (Fire Watch 5).

Smokey Bear has been one of the most successful ad

Smokey Koala of Australia K. Davidson 10 campaigns in American history. The idea of a fire preventing bear was so clever that it has lasted for three generations. With exposure on television, posters, cartoons, and classrooms across the nation, this bear communicated the need to protect our forests from thoughtless destruction.

Within ten years of being introduced, the human caused forest fires were reduced by almost 50%.

He has helped a nation understand the importance of forest fire prevention and will probably continue to do so for many years to come.