Sponsor (Sept-Dec 1958)

Publisher's Note— This is an advertisement, hut one of such unusual character we are glad to be a sponsor of it. Persuaders in the Public Interest The story of a little-known band of men and women who created a Hundred MilHon Dollar Non-Profit Trust that works for the public good Last summer, a hither, driving his vacationing family through one of our great national forests, pulled up for the view where a mountain road looked down on a deep, wooded canyon. Filling his pipe, he flared a kitchen match with his thumbnail, in the Western manner. "Hey, Pop," cried his eight-yearold son, "don't throw that match out the window, break it. You know what Smokey the Bear says." Smokey has been urging people to take such precautions against starting forest fires for 16 years. You've probably seen his messages on posters, on TV, or in print. Or heard them on the radio. Smokey, who now lives in the Washington, D. C, zoo, was a reallife bear cub. A forest ranger found him wandering in the smoke of a forest fire which had consumed his mother. Advertising men dressed him up in print as a forest ranger and made him the greatest fire fighter of them all. As a result of his efforts, the U.S. Forest Service estimates that, since 1942, 600,000 forest fires did not start; 260 million acres of timber did not burn; and nearly 10 billion dollars of damage ivas not done! By Jason Weems Who Made Smokey a Hero Fire Fighter? Smokey got his start in the firefighting business in 1942 when the U.S. Forest Service called for help from a unique business organization called The Advertising Council. You've probably never heard of The Advertising Council, but it is unlikely that a day passes in which you are not exposed to the persuasive messages, prepared and disseminated under its auspices, on the air or in print. This is a good thing for you, and for your country. It all started when an advertising man had lunch with a Princeton professor and three officers of the Rockefeller Foundation in New York. This was in the spring of 1941. The Adman Stuck His Neck Out The protess(.)r was dnmg research in communications under a R(.)ckefellcr grant, so the lunch table talk allv the rt, when the adman stuck his neck out. He said all foundations were making two mistakes in policy. First, they spent most of their money on the iticrcase of knowledge and very little on the distribution of it. Sec ABOUT THE AUTHOR— Jason Weems is the pen He has been successful as a Bible salesman, a printer, on advertising writer, a book and magazine publisher, a government official, the head of a social science research laboratory and consultant to a large Foundation. He is the author of several books. end, when they did spend money on the distribution of knowledge, they used old-fashioned horse-and-buggy methods, and ignored the modern high-speed effectiveness of motion pictures, broadcasting, and advertising. Seeing a responsive gleam in the eyes of the late, great Dr. Alan Gregg, world-wide student of medical problems for the Rockefeller Foundation, the advertising man went on to elaborate his idea in terms of what advertising could do to spread new medical knowledge among all the people. Persuasion for the Public Welfare His convictions, widely shared by many advertising men at that time, boiled down to this: 1. American ad\'crtising facilities and techniques had become the most effccti\-e means for the communication of new knowledge, and for persuasion to use it, which the world had ever seen. 2. This means of communication could be used just as efl^"ectively in the public interest as it was being used in the pri\ate interest. 3. Ad\'errisnig bem^ a coiumunication facilit) de\ eloped by business, business itself might well consider making it available for public welfare projects and organizations. Out of these convictions The Advertising Council was born in NovemTURN PAGE SPONSOR • 20 DECEMBER 1958