Smokey Bear ("Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires")
U.S. Forest Service / Ad Council1944
Smokey Bear ("Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires") is a 1944 public service campaign (posters, radio, television) for U.S. Forest Service / Ad Council, created by Foote, Cone & Belding.
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The line
Only you can prevent forest fires.
Why it works
The longest-running public service advertising campaign in United States history — more than 80 years and counting. Created in 1944 by the U.S. Forest Service, the War Advertising Council (now the Ad Council) and agency Foote, Cone & Belding to protect wartime timber, Smokey Bear was painted first by Albert Staehle; the slogan "Remember... Only YOU Can Prevent Forest Fires" arrived in 1947 and was updated to "wildfires" in 2001 as fire ecology evolved. It is studied for the mechanics of durable behavior-change advertising: a mascot that personalizes a national problem, a slogan that assigns responsibility to the individual ("only you"), and a partnership model that has kept one idea coherent across every medium since World War II. Smokey became so recognizable that just his face and the word "Remember" carried the whole message — and he is protected by U.S. federal law.
Techniques
- Mascots and characters A friendly bear personalises the national problem of forest fires, becoming so recognisable that his face alone carries the message.
- Purpose and cause A public service message makes preventing forest fires the personal responsibility of every individual who sees it.
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