Several nights ago I was conversing with a young person
about his recent trip to Africa. Like
most Americans who travel overseas, they are often shocked by the amount of
litter that seems to be everywhere and my friend was no exception. I explained to him that when I was growing up
(during the 1960’s and 1970’s) we had a litter problem that was just about as
bad as any place I have ever visited outside the U.S. but we had something that
put an end to it: The Keep America
Beautiful Campaign. Night after
night, as we sat in the glow of the family television set (only wealthy people
had more than one set in their homes) we would see a public service announcement
featuring an American Indian from the past paddling his traditional canoe into
a present day modern and industrialized but unnamed metropolis. Everywhere he goes, this man who deeply loves
and respects nature, encounters careless and thoughtless people throwing their
trash out the window. The announcement
closes with a motorist dumping the remains of his drive-thru hamburger meal
right at the feet of this native man and looking directly at the camera we see
there is a tear running down his cheek and then we hear the voice-over admonition that caring for our great land
begins and ends with you(if you want to watch the video for
nostalgia/or/informational purposes go here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=j7OHG7tHrNM
My young friend was quite surprised about this and asked me
if I really believe that one public service announcement had that much power to
change the face of America? “Absolutely”,
I told him, “to this very day whenever I throw my hamburger trash out the
window, I’m haunted by a vague sense of guilt and the face of an Indian man who
is being a big cry-baby about some litter that by the end of the week is going
to blow into the next county or will be eaten by a bunch of wild possums. Never underestimate the power of a good
public service announcement.
Posts
