Smokey the Bear

Although it is hard to pinpoint Smokey the Bear's exact staring date, the first time he appeared on a poster was in 1944. The start of the Forest Fire Preservation campaign started two years prior after a WWII Japanese submarine fired at an oil field close to the Los Padres National Forest. The National Parks Service started the Forest Fire Preservation to help protect the forests from preventable fires, preventable meaning caused by humans and not by natural disasters. At first, the National Parks Service started their campaign with Bambi as their main figure since Disney's Bambi had come out recently and was very popular.

After the release and success of Disney's Bambi in 1942, the posters had recognizable characters along with a catchy slogan to remind the public to help prevent wildfires. It showed children and their parents the kind of damage that can be caused by wildfires and how it harms the wild life. Unfortunately, the National Park System had to find another successful mascot since Disney only loaned Bambi to the government for a year.

The name of their new mascot was inspired by a firefighter, "Smokey" Joe Martin, who was blinded and severely burned during a rescue. After deciding on the name, the National Parks settled on an image of a amicable bear that was made by Harold Rosenberg.

Not only did Harold Rosenberg create an image that would soon be a household name, he was also a acclaimed writer, educator, philosopher, and beloved art critic for New Yorker magazine. His most famous contribution was coining "action painting" an art technique where paint is randomly splashed, dripped, and smeared onto a canvas. His presence in the art community was not to be underestimated, and his opinions were looked up to in the community. Smokey's character was not just confined to cartoon images, he also lived within all the rescued bear cubs named after him.

In 1950, a small black bear cub was rescued from a forest fire in the Lincoln National Forest. The small cub's back legs and paws had been burned when he was trying to escape the flames. The little cub was named Smokey and then taken to the National Zoo in Washington D.C. for permanent residence as well as receive medical treatment. He lived there for 26 years, acting as live symbol for the fight against preventable wildfires. To help spread Smokey's image (and therefore idea of preventing forest fires) to children, toys and stories centered around Smokey were mass produced and marketed.

Included in some of the collectibles and toys were applications to become junior park rangers. This was very effective as it helped encourage children to learn about preventing forest fires. The National Parks service used cute dolls, toys, and books to appeal Smokey the Bear's image to children while at the same time, sneaking in the slogan and easy to remember information regarding forest safety and nature preservation. Not only are they making a profit from the sales, they also succeed in educating the public. Parents are often involved in the interests of their children, and as a result, the parents will also learn about Smokey and preventing wildfires. Parents view this as valuable information they encourage their children's interests regarding Smokey the Bear since they see it as valuable information.

In the above webpage, one can browse through all the different posters released throughout the years. Over the years, even though the slogan changed, the content and overall point of the posters stayed the same: to help protect the forest. Not only from preventable forest fires, ("Only You can 'Prevent Forest Fires") they also focus on keeping the forest clean by cleaning after one's self. As time progressed, so did technology, and the National Park Service had to adapt. They did so by changing their campaigning strategies regarding advertising and the spread of information.

Smokey seems to adjust well to various medias and can freely float throughout the different campaign strategies. From the radio to TV commercials, he seems to transition well into the changing form of media. No matter what media he is in, Smokey always seem to find a way to catch the attention of children. For example, his commercials are typically found on either nature channels, travel channels, or children/teen channels. These channels target the audience that would typically travel to Natural forests or who should be educated on these kind of issues in a fun way. The style in which they present Smokey has also changed with technology. They went from cartoon animations to computer generated images of Smokey that made him more realistic, so much so that he actually interacts with the actors in the commercial.

They way Smokey interacts with actors in the commercial is known as "pleasurable" discipline. "Pleasurable" discipline is when one is being scolded on their wrongdoings, but in such a way that the person being scolded does not take it as insult. They instead take it as a positive learning opportunity. This may then translate to them spreading their knowledge to others. The magic of Smokey the Bear is that he does this flawlessly, which must be difficult given how it is poorly executed in other attempts.

Conflicts have begun to arise between the National Parks Service and the Federal Government. With the new legislation making it easier for the National Park lands to be sold off to oil drilling companies, the National Parks Service and community are not happy. This led to the conflict between the National Parks Service and Trump on Twitter.

When the National Park Service decided to re-tweet some tweets that made President Trump look bad, they received a lot of criticism for overstepping their boundaries, or even slandering the president. This was ironic since the National Parks Service was made by the government, and thus it was one part of the government being critical of itself. Since they are also funded by the Federal government, Trump could have taken away or reduced funding for the National Parks. To try to save their funding and reputation, they posted claiming it was a hacker, and apologized for the tweet. However, the damage was done, as the National Park Service has a following of four-hundred and thirty-two thousand Twitter users. This re-tweet encouraged people upset with the new President's actions to begin to use Smokey in their posters, as they saw the National Parks as on their side.

Those that saw the interaction between Trump and the National Park Service saw it as a sign that the National Parks do not support Trump. They started using Smokey the Bear as a symbol of resistance, by changing his caption from "Only you can prevent wildfires" to things such as, "Smokey says Resist." His image is now manipulated to make jokes or statements against the actions of President Trump throughout many social medias like Tumblr, Twitter, and even Instagram.

The decision of President Trump defunding National Parks can also be detrimental to the economy in America. In a recent poll, regardless of party affiliation, 90% reported that further cutting National Parks would not be ideal. Their fears are not unrealistic, as in 2014, the National Park system accumulated nearly $30 billion in economic activity and hundred of thousands of jobs in the private-sector from park visitors. Cutting funds for the National Park System threw many businesses and Americans out of jobs, so President Trump's decision to deny National Parks of more funds would ultimately harm America's economic system.

Now, the National Parks Service has started a new campaign centered around "Finding Your Park" which encourages people to visit nearby National and local parks. Michel Foucault introduced an idea similar to this, in that without the support of the governed, the government cannot work. Without visitors, parks would not have much of an economic reason to exist, since they produce almost ten times as much as the government puts into them. This campaign also encourage people to aid in the efforts of conservation and to help save our environment, including our forests.

Knowing just how important the National Parks Service is, what can you do to prevent forest fires?