In a dark TV ad aired in 1971, a jerk tosses a bag of trash from a moving car. The garbage spills onto the moccasins of a buckskin-clad Native American, played by Italian American actor Espera Oscar de Corti. He sheds a tear on camera, because his world has been defiled, uglied, and corrupted by trash. The poignant ad, which won awards for excellence in advertising, promotes the catchline “People Start Pollution. People can stop it.” What’s lesser known is the nonprofit group Keep America Beautiful, funded by the very beverage and packaging juggernauts pumping out billions of plastic bottles each year (the likes of The Coca-Cola Company, PepsiCo, and Anheuser-Busch Companies), created the PSA.
Given that plastic bottles were first used in the US in 1970 I rather doubt either that billions were used a year later or that it was something which was worth advertising about.
But then this is from Mashable. The website that hired as their economics editor someone fired from The Guardian for their inability to understand economics.
That surprises me. Surely the Guardian would only fire an economics editor who understood economics?
Never mind who funds it – does it work? Do advertising campaigns aimed at changing behaviour work at all? Do they work long-term?
I assume the complaint is the usual Leftist one – that the bottle companies were trying to make things better rather than over-turning the system.
Masking things better, here, means dealing with rubbish. Over turning the system, I guess, means a total ban on plastic. So if only America was knee deep in garbage, it would be easier to force the West back into the Dark Ages.
Well yes. But I think we might like plastic, even if it means picking up after us, rather than, say, those little pottery cups Hindus use.
The more Guardian I read, the better I feel about plastics.
I remember that ad… One of the best ever made. But I have to say, I did not know that the guy playing the Indian was Italian-American. I find that hilarious.
Imagine the shit-show you’d have on Twitter if it had been released in 2020…
I remember that ad. It was iconic.
I wonder is someone could do the same for the countryside round here with dog-shit bags? One was right in the middle of the footpath that runs alongside my house that I maintain yesterday, and I see loads hanging in trees and on fences. There’s not even any need to put it in bags in the country, just use a stick to flick the shit off the paths.
And while I’m having a moan about people abusing the countryside, on my hike yesterday I was just about to leave a field with some sheep in and as I got to the style a guy with his son and dog approached from the other side, so I gave them space to get over. The dog scrambled over and off they started walking. When I pointed out the dog should be on a lead I was informed “its grown up around livestock”, maybe so, but it was still running around and not going to heel and the farmer doesn’t know that and nor do the sheep. Ignorant twat didn’t even have a lead.
The footpath is between the local and one of the campsites so I presume he’d also been in the pub without a lead for the dog, if so, doubly ignorant twat.
BiND-
You sound like an old fart. I’m not saying you’re wrong, just saying you sound like an old fart.
Nah, if he’d been a genuine old fart he’d have belaboured the odious pair with his walking stick.
And then, on the Precautionary Principle, shot the fucking dog.
Evidently being a wog old fart involves quite a bit more violence than being a septic old fart.
We just yell at the TV a lot.
played by Italian American actor Espera Oscar de Corti.
Woah, woah, whoah! These people are deadnaming Iron Eyes Cody?
SMDH. I am literally shaking right now.
Dennis,
Mrs BiND thinks I’m a grumpy old fart, she may think it but she’s never used boring.
‘In a dark TV ad aired in 1971, a jerk tosses a bag of trash from a moving car. The garbage spills onto the moccasins of a buckskin-clad Native American, played by Italian American actor Espera Oscar de Corti.’
The actor who played the guy throwing the bag out doesn’t deserve to be called ‘jerk.’ His role is no different than the fake Indian.
It was all fake. It was a TV ad. One actor good, one actor bad . . . is stupid.
Presumably Native Americans always took all their trash to the local recycling depot.
@Philip Scott Thomas
Thanks for YT link
@BiND August 19, 2020 at 3:34 pm
+1 The virtue signalling do-gooders making things worse as usual. Maybe they’ll soon be picking up and bagging rabbit, fox, badger, snail, worm, bird….. poo too
Thankfully, few (but 1 is too many) of them in ‘wild’ areas round here
-1 on the dog moan; ours never on lead and were taught to not chase livestock; not scared of gunfire, thunder, fireworks either
@Dennis
+1 on ‘old fart’
Pcar,
If you and your local farmers are happy with complete strangers wandering round it bout leads, good luck, don’t impose your costs on us.
You sound like the woman who’s dog was yapping round my ankles telling me that it was ok, he’s well trained and friendly, then it bit me as I walked away.
‘The more Guardian I read, the better I feel about plastics.’
I used to bother about radiation at one time. Then I noticed who agreed with me. So I made a point of reading articles that disagreed with them. And eventually I came to the conclusion that I was wrong and radiation was no big deal. (This was a real miracle, as you’d know if you’d ever tried to persuade me I was wrong about anything.)
So identity politics really works!!!
“…The website that hired as their economics editor someone fired from The Guardian for their inability to understand economics….”
It is hard to get a man to understand something when his political viewpoint depends on him not understanding it…
A slight upodate of Upton Sinclair.
@BiND
Old fart was due to lumping all dog owners together.. Round here most are good, but still too many idiots.
eg two small girls lead-walking Rottweiler, that weighed more than them, in woods. It broke free to chase our Cocker, thankfully our Malinois resolved problem when told to
@Boganboy
+1 Same here. Ignore the instinctive reaction to support the “Save…” movements, read more
Way back in 70’s at school most of us did and were pro-nuclear power, the few antis were mocked. One received a lot of stick when he turned up with arm in plaster “Did you have an X-Ray? Why aren’t you dead?”
@Dodgy
No. Honesty should trump political views. Unfortunately Left eschew honesty