This Is Your Brain on PSAs: GEnX Edition

Kristin Nilsen 0:00

The point here is that not just burnouts and hussies get VD. Vd is for everybody. Come

Michelle Newman 0:06

on, get happy.

Kristin Nilsen 0:28

Welcome to the pop culture Preservation Society, the podcast for people born in the big wheel generation who gave a hoot and didn't pollute we

Michelle Newman 0:36

believe our Gen X childhoods gave us unforgettable songs, stories, characters and images, and if we don't talk about them, they'll disappear, like Marshall will and Holly on a routine expedition.

Carolyn Cochrane 0:48

And today, we'll be saving those iconic television moments that shaped our understanding of social issues, civic responsibility, and maybe even added to our list of anxieties, the public service announcement. I'm Carolyn, I'm

Michelle Newman 1:03

Kristen, and I'm Michelle, and we are your pop culture preservationists

Carolyn Cochrane 1:09

for Generation X, public service announcements were more than just commercials. They were cultural touchstones that helped to shape our childhoods. These Messages influenced our values, our anxieties and even our sense of humor, from environmental warnings to the dangers of drug use, these ads left a lasting impact on our worldview and earned a permanent placement in our childhood memories. You guys remember these? Right? Oh

Kristin Nilsen 1:33

my gosh, absolutely. Yeah, they scarred me,

Carolyn Cochrane 1:37

right? I mean, that's just we'll talk about it as we go through this episode, but our generation, it was, Let's scare everybody to death. Fear is the motivator for this generation, right?

Kristin Nilsen 1:49

How do you parent fear? Scare the Yeah, yeah. Scared

Michelle Newman 1:54

Straight, right, yeah. Well, did you guys ever stop to wonder just when or why the heck PSAs began, no wonder no more. I'm here to tell you, actually, I think it's pretty interesting. So public service announcements have actually been around since World War Two, when the Ad Council. The advertising Council was formed, and the Ad Council originally consisted of radio broadcasters and advertising agencies that all collaborated to create messages to support the war effort. For example, their loose lips sink ships campaign encouraged people not to share information about military activities. But yeah, and

Kristin Nilsen 2:35

then in textbooks like you learn about that in your history class

Michelle Newman 2:39

I know, or in Wonderopolis, on wonderopolis.org so PSAs did not end when the war did. No, they did not. And we know this because we were so bombarded with them during our TV watching and talk about an impact. We not only can still recite many of the lines, but the images that we were seeing are burned into our brains all these decades later. Now, does that mean none of us littered or used drugs or set fires? No, but I bet when you were doing any of those things, you were thinking like, if you're a little fire starter, I bet you were thinking about Smokey Bear, uh huh, right? Or if you're littering, you're thinking of that tier, or you're thinking of what's, you know, the tier.

Kristin Nilsen 3:23

I'm not gonna say just the tone. Yes, all you

Carolyn Cochrane 3:27

have to say. I mean, how cool is that? That's all you have to say. And we all know what you're talking about. So as we love to do here at the PCPs, we wanted to ask you, our listeners and followers, what your most memorable PSAs were, and then do a little of our fun PCPs math to come up with the top 10. And as usual, you all had feelings, but before we get to that countdown, we wanted to share several that maybe didn't make the top 10, but either who skirted us or were just plain weird. We have to talk about those. I mean, yeah,

Kristin Nilsen 3:59

the obscure but equally disturbing, I think, would be the category that maybe some of you remember. So the first one I want to share with you is just a cartoon panel that appeared in comic books in schools in 1985 and some smart ass titled it Boo. Boo is propositioned. It's a cartoon panel, yes, let me just, let me set the scene for you. Okay, panel, and this went out in schools. Mind you, it's a cartoon panel that shows Yogi Bear surrounded by the Flintstone babies, all the grown up Flintstone characters, but drawn to be children. For some reason, I don't know why we need to have them be children. And Yogi seems to be holding court while the Flintstone babies confess all of the scary things that have happened to them, baby Fred Flintstone says, Guess what, my friend offered me a cigarette, and baby Betty rubble are flanking poor boo boo bear who has had a real bad scare and. And he says, after school, a stranger offered us a ride home.

Michelle Newman 5:03

That's very scary. And Yogi looks legitimately

Kristin Nilsen 5:07

concerned that his buddy, old pal, almost got in someone's van. It's a it's a little fractured. We've got peer pressure slash cigarettes, and we've got stranger danger. That's a lot. I feel like they should have just picked one and stuck with it. It was their quicksand too. That'd be probably in the next panel. Don't touch the quicksand. This next one is called VD. Is for everybody, and it's from 1969 and it's just, it's a little ditty. It's adorable. It's got it'll put a little bounce in your step. The point here is that not just burnouts and hussies get VD. Vd is for everybody.

Speaker 1 5:49

You give VD and you get VD, you get VD.

Kristin Nilsen 5:54

And so they play this peppy little jingle featuring all the people that Vd is for, like a violin player, a librarian, an old professor, dad playing with his kid in the oceans, a ballet dancer and a baby. Wait,

Carolyn Cochrane 6:15

well, yeah, remember the baby could get it when it came through the birth canal. Oh, right. It could be blind if you had

Michelle Newman 6:24

blinded by your VD. But it's

Kristin Nilsen 6:26

so funny, because this is not ominous at all. It's like and a baby can also get VD. Wow.

Oh, okay, now let's take it down a notch. Let's get dark. Okay, because there's this horrifying number from Great Britain teaching us not to fly kites around electrical towers. Was this a big problem? Yes, it was, for real.

Michelle Newman 7:09

Oh, not electrical towers. Electric like power lines, for sure. In Great Britain,

Kristin Nilsen 7:14

this was a big problem, and it ominously follows a boy climbing the tower to retrieve his kite that has gotten snagged in the wires. The camera pans to these signs that say danger, lots and lots of voltage, and then the tower explodes and a waterfall of sparks and the boy's flaming body hurdles toward the ground like a red doll. I'm serious.

Carolyn Cochrane 7:41

Oh my gosh, wow. This must have

Kristin Nilsen 7:46

been, it must have been a big problem in England, because with an even more graphic version in 1989 this time it's their football that gets caught in the wires, and they amp up the trauma by having the flaming boys, tiny, little angelic brother, run to save him, only to have him explode too.

Michelle Newman 8:06

Wait, wait, wait, wait, how do we know it's the flaming boy's brother? Because they say it's my brother. It's my God. Like, no, no. So it's like, if you're the message I'm getting is that if you see your friend do it and they explode, don't go trying to help them. Just it's just let it be, let it show. Then they should have just started having a Beatles, singing, let it be.

Kristin Nilsen 8:29

And the traumatic part of this one is that they they don't show the little angelic boy blowing up. They just show the the flames, and they show the faces of the friends witnessing the little angelic brother blowing up, and they're like, no angelic little brother blow up. It's really, really bad. But that's not all you guys. There's another one. They did it again, this time with a Frisbee, and this one featured a radio reporting that a young boy was killed while retrieving his frisbee today, and the announcer urges children to never retrieve their toys from an electrical substation. Instead, ask an adult for help, and then they show a boy very responsibly getting a soccer ball from a priest. No,

Michelle Newman 9:14

that is even worse. I'll take the blowing up, please. I'll risk it. Sorry. There's some good priests out there,

Kristin Nilsen 9:27

not all priests. Hashtag, a lot of priests. Hashtag, a lot hashtag, a lot

Michelle Newman 9:34

of priests. I love how it's like, ask for help, and it would be really funny that you just see the adult blowing up.

Kristin Nilsen 9:42

I mean, if logic is a thing, then yeah, it would be the adult blowing up, right?

Michelle Newman 9:48

I mean, I'm assuming it's like, you call, like, these three numbers. That's like, power line emergencies or anything. Don't make your priest go in and get your soccer ball. But you're right, Kristen, to have this many of them and to have them be so. Traffic, this had to be a very common occurrence. Yes, they

Carolyn Cochrane 10:03

weren't learning from the first one or two, right? Are there substations, like on every corner?

Unknown Speaker 10:11

Or

Michelle Newman 10:14

that's a lot of things getting caught? Yes,

Carolyn Cochrane 10:17

maybe do something about the substations. Okay, but listen

Kristin Nilsen 10:20

to this, you guys. There are two in particular that really scarred me personally when I was little. And I want to see if anyone else remembers these, because I don't know some of these might be regional, and I've never heard anyone else who knows of these. This would be California in the early 70s. So, all right, California people, if you grew up there, tell me if you remember these. The first one shows children playing in a junkyard, and one of them climbs inside an old abandoned refrigerator, and guess what happens? The door gets stuck, he can't get out, and he dies. And I remember asking my mom, how does being inside a refrigerator make you die? And that's how I learned the word suffocate

Michelle Newman 11:00

when you started saying it, it's like I knew what was coming next. But it also could be, because one time we were at our babysitter's house, and my sister and one of the older little girls were playing hide and seek, and she put my sister in the clothes dryer and closed the door, and then she got out, but we told my mom, and my mom lost her mind, and I remember that that like you will suffocate, you will die because you can't get any air so you you do not play at a dryer or refrigerator or Yeah. So

Kristin Nilsen 11:30

the second one is almost too horrifying to mention, but I have to, I have to find out if somebody else was scarred like me. Sometimes I wonder if it was a fever dream. Because who would conceive of this. Who would agree to film this today? It would come with a trigger warning, so I'll pause right here if you want to skip ahead 30 seconds, because it features the image burned into my brain of a baby dead lying on the floor with a plastic bag over its head. I'm okay. This was on TV. Okay.

Michelle Newman 12:07

I know you said maybe it was a fever dream. I don't remember this, but I do know again. Do you remember? So you bring things home from the dry cleaners, and sometimes you just put them in the closet, and all those plastic bags were just hanging and they were hanging in my mom's closet. So again, my sister and I love to play in my mom's closet, like, look at the shoes and whatever. And we got lectured and lectured and lectured about never playing around the plastic bags because they could go over your face. So I wonder if that really was a PSA, and this was a big deal at the time babies and small children were dying. But why would they put a picture of a why would they actually, I'm

Kristin Nilsen 12:42

not going to describe it for you, because it's too graphic. And I don't know how they got the baby to lie there like that. I have no idea. And again, I was a child, and I had to ask, what is this all about? And it was my cool aunt who explained this one to me, don't put plastic bags over baby's heads. And I, yet, I was like, are people doing this? Yeah, why? Why are people putting plastic bags on baby's heads? Why do we need a PSA? But it sounds like there was something about having dry cleaner bags in the closet or something, or just like laying on

Michelle Newman 13:12

the bed and then you put the baby and don't forget, babies didn't it was back then it wasn't like, put the baby in the baby carrier, the baby seed safe. You laid your baby on the bed, you laid your baby on the couch, you laid your back. So maybe it actually was happening.

Kristin Nilsen 13:26

Oh, you guys, I was so scared. I was so scared of this, and like anytime there was a baby in a plastic bag in the same room, I felt like it was my responsibility to save the baby.

Michelle Newman 13:37

Christie's running in slow motion. Yes, she's ripping the plastic bag off, but

Kristin Nilsen 13:43

you guys that image who, yeah, hell decided it was good idea to film that.

Michelle Newman 13:47

Well, let's, let's throw it out to the listeners like like you did earlier. But for this one, especially, please email us at Hello at pop preservationists.com or send us a DM, because Kristen needs to know on

Carolyn Cochrane 14:02

a lighter note, please. We're gonna get ready to move into our top 10, but I want to share a few that really who screwed dude me, that got us, that got several votes, but they didn't make it into the top 10. And I want to see if you guys remember these, which I'm sure you do. It's just one of those things where I was like, Oh my gosh, yes. Well, one is riff. Do you guys remember the campaign? Yes, that's all right, yes, that's right. I loved that. And as soon as I saw riff, I knew exactly what it meant, much like I then remembered this campaign. Do you remember the tagline, a mind is a terrible thing to wait to waste? Yeah, yes, and it wasn't technically a PSA. It was an ad for and I'm gonna see if you remember, because I knew exactly who the ad was for. As soon as I saw a mind is a terrible thing to waste. Do you guys remember?

Michelle Newman 14:52

I have no but when you said, when you said that tagline, my first thought was, was that a PSA? So I must be getting there, and

Carolyn Cochrane 14:59

people. Mentioned it as a PSA. I think it was more of a commercial and an ad for this particular organization, which I'm going to tell you. Oh, it was an United Negro College Yes,

Kristin Nilsen 15:10

yes, you're right. It was the United Negro College Fund, the

Carolyn Cochrane 15:14

last one. Oh my gosh. When I watched it, I had to bring it up and watch it on YouTube. So funny. I don't want to see if you guys remember this? It was an anti smoking campaign ad where c3 po catches r2 d2, lighting up. And at first he thinks r2 d2, is on fire. Quickly realize, realizes he's smoking a cigarette. Aren't you smoking? Yes, he is smoking, and c3 po chastises him for it and lists all the ways that it can be harmful. And then C 3p O breaks a fourth wall, and he talks to us, and he basically tells us all the reasons it's bad and it's not grown up to smoke. That was his message. Like, if you want to feel grown up, don't smoke.

Michelle Newman 15:59

It's actually smart, though, in the late seven, I mean, to have the Star Wars, just the phenomenon that it was, if you're trying to, you know, grasp onto anything that's going to really like, you know, beat this message into kids. It's even if the kids, the kids aren't thinking, Wait, that robot can't smoke, they're just talking to me. Oh,

Carolyn Cochrane 16:19

yeah. And what two screwed dude me was see three po seeing so there's like, smoke coming from behind this corner, and he's, like, in his voice, I'm not even gonna be able to do it, but what is that? And then, you know, he waddles over, or whatever. He does see three Pio walk. And then, of course, there's our 2d two, and there's this smoke coming. But at that point, c3, Pio just thinks that archity Two is on fire. He's

Kristin Nilsen 16:43

like, short circuiting, or 2d.

Carolyn Cochrane 16:48

Two has this, like hole, kind of, I guess, where his belly where the cigarette?

Kristin Nilsen 16:54

There's an actual cigarette coming out of detail, and it's coming out of his belly button, yeah,

Carolyn Cochrane 17:00

kind of like those awful scenes. Do you remember where the person goes couldn't stop

Unknown Speaker 17:05

smoking.

Kristin Nilsen 17:09

Oh, my God, he put it like it isn't tracheotomy, yes. Oh my God, in his throat. Oh, I definitely remember the people putting the cigarettes and that. I'm surprised that didn't come up. That didn't come up. I feel like that might

Michelle Newman 17:23

have been in one of those films we saw in school about, like, where you would see the black lung and everything, yes, and the Plexiglas shriveled up like raisin lung. Yeah.

Carolyn Cochrane 17:31

Again, you know the trauma that that brought me as a child of parents of a smoker. It was awful, awful.

Kristin Nilsen 17:37

Okay, can I bring something up here that I don't know if it qualifies as a PSA, but I'm but it might. I don't know what the purpose was. Did you guys all see the scoliosis movie in school? Yes, okay. Why? Why were they showing us a scoliosis movie? Is because you can't do anything about scoliosis, right? So it's not like a

Carolyn Cochrane 17:56

one whole another trauma of my life. Yeah, yes. Why would they What is

Kristin Nilsen 18:01

that for surgery? Remember, and you could see the spine and all the muscles, and,

Michelle Newman 18:07

yes, why? I don't know, because it was probably during like Health Awareness Week, which then we all had to march down in our lines to the nurse and bend over, cross your legs, bend over, touch your toes, and they rubbed the line. They rubbed your spine.

Carolyn Cochrane 18:20

Oh, you. I've shared my story about that. I still have trauma. Poor Carolyn

Kristin Nilsen 18:24

had a heart, that's

Michelle Newman 18:25

right. And

Kristin Nilsen 18:26

Carolyn, yes, oh my, so scary. And you thought you were gonna be like, Deanie, yes, I

Carolyn Cochrane 18:31

can't even it was in front of all your friends. And you're the one who has to, like, go down a few times and then, like, they call another PE teacher over something, yeah,

Michelle Newman 18:39

the PE teacher, who knows what, like scoliosis, was

Kristin Nilsen 18:44

probably the gym teacher. We probably saw this in gym I would love to ask a 1970s era gym teacher, why was that in the curriculum? Why did we have the scoliosis movie? Why did it have to show us the surgery, when really, how many of us actually got sent to the doctor and ended up in a back brace, like dini.

Carolyn Cochrane 19:03

I had two friends that did, but at the same time, like, why would you show that? Because there's nothing you can do about it. It's not like smoking or whatever. You know, if you have a choice, no you can maybe then see the movie or something, or they can give you a pamphlet. But the fear, of course, and then there's all this waiting, because then I get a note with me that says your daughter should go to the orthopedic surgeon and get whatever. So there's all this like waiting time in there. And then you go and get x rays, but then the X rays have to get read, and they have to read you the results. And so you're just seeing that movie, and Deenie just spinning in your head. Oh my god. Honestly, guys, it is just amazing. I'm still on this. I know, I know, have

Michelle Newman 19:43

human bodies evolved now that scoliosis isn't really a thing, because you don't see anybody walking around in a brace also, or if scoliosis is still as common as apparently it was in the 70s, is there a different treatment for it? Now

Carolyn Cochrane 19:56

maybe they've realized that mild cases are fine. So please. With slight curves were fine, but people that had major like essence surgery, yeah, they

Kristin Nilsen 20:07

certainly don't show this movie anymore. Do they even screen for it anymore?

Carolyn Cochrane 20:11

My kids never had it. I

Kristin Nilsen 20:13

don't think they do. Okay, listeners, if one of you out there, somebody listening right now has a parent who was a gym teacher in the 70s, please ask that parent about the scoliosis movie and the screening and why and why it stopped.

Carolyn Cochrane 20:36

Bucha. Everyone, we're getting ready to name your top 10. Coming in at number 10 is the crash test dummies. Yes, you know what? This is often considered one of the most successful public service campaigns in history. Oh, wow. Okay, and think about it, those mannequin like figures were subjected to the brutal realities of car crashes. Okay, guys, do you remember like their bodies would go through the windshield, and I think it was like slow motion, yeah, and then they'd be like all mangled, kind of like their forms were in all these like unnatural positions. Oh my gosh, I do totally remember those. And it was like this visceral experience, like you were seeing what would happen to a body if it was in this car crash, and you'd see what happened, what would happen to the car too. It'd be all the car would be mangled. And it's, of course, much like a lot of these PSAs we're going to talk about, the success of the campaign lies in its ability to tap into our primal instinct of fear. So many of the PSAs that left their impact with us were because they scared the living but Jesus, out of us, we were so scared. It's possibly one of the most powerful motivators. And you guys, it was indeed motivating because, I mean, did we not start using seat belts around those times and would not even think twice prior to that? I don't, you know, we couldn't find our seat belt sometimes, like, I'd feel like, oh, I need to wear my seat belt in the back. And I try to stick my hand down the and it was all crumbly down there. You couldn't even get it exactly. Or if

Kristin Nilsen 22:11

your parents would, like, arbitrarily, say, Put on your seat belt. Like it was, like, the biggest injustice.

Carolyn Cochrane 22:20

And I cut my finger trying to go down there and find the thing.

Kristin Nilsen 22:23

And it really was around that time. You'll have to tell me what the years were, but there was a point at which I consciously put my seat belt I didn't got. From now on, this is what I do when I get in the car, and

Carolyn Cochrane 22:33

those crash test dummy PSAs were so impactful that not only did it encourage us to buckle up, and indeed we did. It impacted the automotive industry to make safer cars. So it was powerful on many levels and had a big impact. And

Kristin Nilsen 22:49

then there was legislation that came, that came after that. It was against the law to not wear your seat belt. And there was a time Mike always talks about how his mom's first car, she she paid extra for seat belts. Like that was an option. You didn't have my car to come with seat belts. Crazy. And now we have a law that says you have to wear them

Speaker 2 23:11

even with their bags. Vince, you still got to remember to buckle your safety belt.

Speaker 3 23:15

Now you tell me, you could learn a lot from a dummy buckle your safety belt. Coming

Carolyn Cochrane 23:20

in at number nine is Kristen. What is it? All right, we have a tie

Kristin Nilsen 23:24

at number nine. It's a categorical tie, and it is between friends. Don't let friends drive drunk, slash drinking and driving can kill a friendship. These were very powerful. The first one features a bunch of drunk friends piling into a car with a jock and a letter jacket, who insists he's okay to drive by slurring, what's a couple of beers? And then he gets behind the wheel. They're like, are you okay? Man, yeah, what's a couple of beers? And then, boom, they all turn into skeletons,

Michelle Newman 23:55

that one, that one that I still to this day, like, get the grossest feeling inside when I imagine that one,

Kristin Nilsen 24:05

that's some good art direction, right there. It's really good. The second one shows two wine glasses cheersing, and then instead of clinking, they crash and explode into shards of glass. And you hear like the sound of tires screeching, and you hear the sound of crashing. Then it's two beer glasses crashing into each other, and finally, two highballs come careening toward each other, until someone's very responsible hand intervenes and stops one whiskey glass from crashing into the other. The metaphor being it's your responsibility to keep your friends from dying. No pressure, exactly. No pressure at all, and actually that, if you think about it, that is a choice. They didn't say we're gonna tell kids not to drink and drive. We're gonna tell kids to stop their friends from drinking and driving. That's another thing altogether. These ads started airing in 1985 and were designed to reach. 16 to 24 year olds, because 42% of all fatal alcohol related car crashes were with a 16 to 24 year old age group. I am 17 years old when these come out, they are targeting me when this comes out, and I remember it vividly, and I remember feeling like they were very pointedly talking to my generation, and although we were very cavalier and we scoffed and we made fun, we made fun of it like crazy, but it might have actually worked, because by 1986 not might it absolutely worked. It 100% worked. By 1986 62% of young Americans reported that they were now more conscious of the dangers of drunk driving than they had been previously, and 34% refused to drink at all when they were planning to drive. That's a huge percentage. And by 1990 there was a 25% decrease in the number of drunk drivers killed in traffic accidents. And I would ask you, what is your children's attitude toward drinking and driving? It's a non starter, right?

Carolyn Cochrane 26:09

If they don't, it's not even contemplated and and luckily, now we have a lot of options of Uber and whatever, yep. And, you know, I'm sure we all have said to our kids, like, if you're ever in a situation that somebody you know, you call us no questions, asked, that kind of thing. Yeah, but it's such a given, kind of like, seat belts. I feel like it's just a given that you wear your seat belt. And I feel like, at least with my kids and stuff, it's just a given that you don't drink and drive. When

Kristin Nilsen 26:34

you look at the generational change that took place, I mean, they didn't just it didn't just change over a generation. It that campaign did change us, too. It did. Yeah, right, absolutely. Oh, absolutely. The ones who were driving home wasted, absolutely wasted. Those same people now would never think of getting in a car, right?

Michelle Newman 26:52

I hope not right.

Carolyn Cochrane 26:54

I think what happened with us, it's that you know you shouldn't be. It's like the awareness of the whole concept of this is a thing, yeah? So the whole little stigma of it and all of those things didn't really become anything until, I really until this campaign, yeah. And mad when we had Mothers Against Drunk Driving, yeah? We

Kristin Nilsen 27:13

do have to give all credit to Mothers Against Drunk Driving, because they're the ones who started this whole Yeah, right, yeah. And they work tirelessly. I have very distinct memories of babysitting on a Friday night in seventh grade. I'm 12 years old, and the dad would give me a drive home, reeking reeking alcohol, just like a like a rag soaked in vodka, is how he smelled. And he's driving me home, and I will, yeah, I remember dad probably shouldn't be driving him anyway. Like, let's have fun, no, but

Carolyn Cochrane 27:45

yeah, at the same time, it was just like, that's what you did. Somebody drove me home and you got in their car and they were the adult and yeah. So I think in that case, there was a huge shift with our generation, with these ads and behavior good for us, and thanks to

Kristin Nilsen 28:01

Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

Speaker 3 28:02

When friends don't stop friends from drinking and driving, friends die. Friends don't let friends drive drunk. Okay, how about

Kristin Nilsen 28:12

the number eight spot? I love this one. This is gonna be fun. I don't know why I love it. It's very iconic. In the number eight spot we have Mr. Yuck, which is not spelled y u c k. It's spelled Mr. Yuck, Y U K. I don't know why Mr. Yuck was introduced in 1971 by the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh to deter young children from ingesting poisons, like the kind of poisons you would have in your house, like cleaning supplies, and they wanted to mark poisonous substances with a very recognizable symbol that would tell children like, Stop, this is poison. It will make you sick. And the designer of the sticker felt that the traditional symbol for poison, which was a skull and crossbones, that was a little outdated. He thought that by the 1970s that symbol was associated with quote, unquote, swashbuckling pirates and buchaneers, rather than harmful substances. It's true, but we still know it was poison, death, death, right? Just because we like pirates doesn't mean that. That doesn't mean death, right? I distinctly remember my mom crawling under the sink and applying Mr. Yuck stickers to all the toxic cleaning products that we kept there when my sister was a toddler, not when my brother and I were young, just when my sister was a toddler. And even then, even then, I'm watching my mom do this, and I'm like, Wouldn't it be more effective if we just put them somewhere that wasn't an eye level for her exactly like doing wouldn't that be better than the sticker she's like on her hands and knees down there, like toddler height? So did it work? Nope. At least two peer reviewed studies have suggested that Mr. Yuck stickers. That did not effectively keep children away from potential poisons, and they may have even attracted children like Tide Pods, right? They made it too attractive. It's a cute little character. This is interesting, though. So a lot of the stickers would then become printed regionally, because you could put the phone number of your local poison control. But I think I do remember,

Carolyn Cochrane 30:21

like, having some kind of instruction about it at school, like someone came and talked to us and then sent us home with the stickers. Yes, that's right. Then I think I was probably of the rule following, you know, that I the rule follower that I was, you know, giving them to my mom and saying, you have to put this on all the poisons, or, you know, Ronnie or and I could die, and then my mom being like, I'll get to it kind of like, we need to have a fire plan,

Kristin Nilsen 30:49

an escape plan, escape plan for

Carolyn Cochrane 30:51

the fire kind of thing, like feeling super responsible. I feel like that was also this thing that was, maybe it was me personally, but weighed on me when I learned these things in school that were bad, and then I went home and they were they didn't like, transition to home like, but that tracks

Kristin Nilsen 31:07

Carolyn, that totally tracks we become the responsible parents, yeah, right. And our parents are like, you don't need a fire ladder.

Carolyn Cochrane 31:18

We didn't have fire ladders when we were kids. We

Kristin Nilsen 31:21

were fine. We just jumped out the window. They're targeting us, they're scaring us, and we become the responsible parents. Why did they need to warn us? Because our parents were protecting us.

Michelle Newman 31:36

That's the reason for the influx of PSAs and in the 70s,

Kristin Nilsen 31:41

because our parents were doing their jobs. Therapy. We're having therapy today. Okay, okay. Should we do number seven? Let's do it. Okay. The seventh most popular PSA, as voted by the members of the pop culture Preservation Society, is dun. Dun, dun. It's 10pm Do you know where your children are? No

Michelle Newman 32:04

because our parents were responsible. They were drinking like, you know, doors and probably, you know, Clorox.

Kristin Nilsen 32:17

They were drinking cleaning fluids, and they were drinking and driving and jumping out of the window when there was a fire. So this was really a catch phrase, more than it was a singular PSA, and it was used generally to kick off the evening news broadcast at various stations around the nation. Usually it was read by the news anchor to kick off the news. It's 10pm Do you know where your children are? Where were we? I know, I know. Eventually they got other TV and sports stars to record the messages to kick off the 10pm newscast. For years, this happened from the 1960s to the late 90s. This would kick off the news people like Joan Rivers, Reggie Jackson, Andy Warhol, they must have had hundreds of stars. I know. Andy, we're all like at 10pm Do you know where you're jumping? Like some people were better at delivering the message than somewhere. Here's your the answer to your question. Carolyn, the catchphrase was created in response to new curfew laws aimed at keeping kids off the streets, and it grew in popularity after a summer of extreme unrest in 1967 but as we've just said, I also don't think it's a coincidence that this catch phrase was aimed at parents of Gen X kids. Notice it's not in rotation anymore. That's because we don't need it. We know where our children are. I know where little Parker is. He's at his fencing lesson or he's at theater camp, right? And then after that, he's got chess club, and then he's got Matt limping, yes,

Michelle Newman 33:48

read his 50 pages.

Kristin Nilsen 33:52

There's literally no such thing as not knowing where your child is anymore. That's called an Amber Alert. This is the pendulum swing from the from our parents, you regularly, didn't know where we were regularly. And again, if you ask Linda, she would be like, what, I knew where you were. No, you didn't. Isn't a

Carolyn Cochrane 34:13

general idea, like, what you know maybe, like, a five mile radius. Are

Kristin Nilsen 34:18

you in the neighborhood? Yeah, I was in the neighborhood. Was I at Lizzie's house? Was I at Christie's house in the state somewhere? Sure, don't you remember your mom calling houses and being like, is Kristen there and writing that a bad thing? That's okay, but that means she didn't know where I was. And again, I'm not casting dispersions at my at my mom, because no, that was how it was. Yeah, where's Kristen? I'll call Ann Chase's house and see if she's over there, right? But that doesn't happen anymore. We know where our kids are. It's 10pm

Unknown Speaker 34:51

Do you know where your children are? Okay?

Michelle Newman 34:53

Coming in at number six is, I think, one of the most effective PSAs for me, at least. And actually. For a lot of others, as Time Magazine has listed this as one of the top 10 PSAs of all time. And this is like father, like son, also known, as I learned it by watching you okay. And this was created by the Partnership for drug A Drug Free America, launched in 1987 and this is the one, if you remember, that features a father confronting his son in his bedroom with a box. Can he opens it. You can't see what's in it, but you can see that there's some unspecified, you know, drug paraphernalia in there. And the the boys, you know, he's got his headphones on, and he's, you know, the boy keeps trying to interrupt him, like, I don't know, I don't know what, but the dad's not listening. Where did you get it? Where did you get it? Finally, he erupts, and he says, Who taught you how to do this stuff? And the son finally is just so fed up. And he shouts, you all right, I learned it by watching you. And the father just responds with this kind and he has the mustache kind of this look of regret, and then you hear the narrator say, parents who use drugs have children who use drugs. Okay, brilliant, though it's

Kristin Nilsen 36:08

brilliant, and also aimed at our parents and their bad parenting. So all of these, whether they're aimed at us or whether they're aimed at the adults, are really aimed at the adults. Okay,

Michelle Newman 36:21

moving on to number five, and we're gonna lighten things up a little. And I am so excited to talk about this next one, because I get to recall an ear worm that has been embedded in your brains loudly for decades when

Speaker 3 36:33

I'm slow on the draw and I need something to show a hanker for a hunk of cheese.

Michelle Newman 36:40

So time for timer is a series of seven short PSAs that were broadcast on Saturday mornings on the ABC television network. That's interesting that it was only on ABC starting in 1975 which these animated spots feature timer. And I want to ask you guys, what do you think timer is? Is he a lemon? People when we, when we post on social media, people are always like, is he a lemon with legs? Does anyone know? Yeah, what is he?

Kristin Nilsen 37:08

He's a pencil topper. It

Michelle Newman 37:10

looks exactly like a pencil I was, I was yesterday years old when I learned that timer is an anthro anthropomorphic circadian rhythm. No stop. Yes, he is the self. He is the self proclaimed keeper of body time.

Kristin Nilsen 37:29

No, that's why his name's timer. I always wondered that, like, what's timer, too?

Michelle Newman 37:33

Exactly? I don't know. He is anthropomorphic circadian rhythm. Yeah. How do you even personify circadian rhythm. So he's, he's, his purpose, basically, is to keep her of your body time, so to help you eat healthy and to help you brush your teeth and to think of healthy snacks, right? So, like I said, these PSAs ran on Saturday mornings during our cartoons, starting in 1975 but timer first appeared in the 1973 ABC after school special, the incredible, indelible, magical, physical, mystery trip. In this special, he works inside the body of a man named Uncle Carl.

Kristin Nilsen 38:11

I think I remember that. I do remember this. And he travels, he travels through the body. I remember, yes, yes.

Michelle Newman 38:17

I do not remember that at all. Okay. We might have to see if we can find that one on YouTube and put a link in so timer also then appears in the 1974 ABC after school special, the magical mystery trip through little Red's head, working inside a teenaged Red Riding Hood. What's crazy, dry induced. The episodes ran until 1992 and there were seven of them. And I'm going to tell you the ones that I think are the most memorable. I hanker for a hunk of cheese. We just heard that little diddy, where timer is recast as a cowboy with a thick Western accent, and he suggests wagon wheels. What's your sandwich is made with cheese slices and crackers, which is an easy, nutritious snack everyone, which it actually is, I still eat that as a snack. And when timer prepares one on a kitchen counter, he rolls it down the counter on its edge and exclaims, look a wagon wheel. I don't know if I sound anything like timer, but in my head, I do. Yeah, you do. Okay, one of the other, I think memorable ones was, was just entitled have a carrot, and it's where timer is channeling WC Fields as time as as an anthropomorphic circadian rhythm. Often does channels WC Fields and he assembles some nutritious in between meal snacks, like carrot sticks. The next one that I want to say, is the one that, to me, is as memorable as the wagon wheel. Sunshine on a stick. Yes. Timer suggests making ice pops with fruit juice and ice tray and toothpicks. And, let me tell you, timer that shits crap. It doesn't work.

Kristin Nilsen 39:56

I thought it was. He says, 10 minutes. He says, like, put it in. The freezer for 10 minutes. It didn't work,

Carolyn Cochrane 40:01

no. And my mom got so mad because orange juice went everywhere. And, you know, it's like, the top would be frozen. So you'd kind of think, oh, maybe the whole thing. And we had those metal ice cube trays that you had to, like, lift up that were sharp and leather, and then orange juice went everywhere. And orange juice because your finger

Michelle Newman 40:19

would stick to it, if your finger was damp at all. My problem was I would cover the ice cube tray with the saran wrap, which, you know, doesn't stick to the side, and that's because it's from the freezer. And I would try to poke the toothpick through, but it would poke the whole like, all the saran wrap, because the toothpick was never, like, into the juice. Yeah, the whole thing would go into the juice. And then you try to cut a slip that the toothpick would and I know that a lot of you listening like are right with us, because anytime we've posted this on social media, you guys are always like those ice cube things never worked. Also the ice cube, if it did work, it's too heavy for your toothpick, and your

Kristin Nilsen 40:56

tooth is too little. It's not like nobody tested this, maybe a popsicle stick. But I remember that it was, it was kind of dangerous, first of all, because it's pointy, and then it just didn't it was top heavy. It was really, really top heavy. And I remember my mom. I remember checking on them, like every three minutes to see if they were frozen. And my mom was like, What are you doing in the freezer every three minutes? You know what?

Michelle Newman 41:18

That's my Tupperware. Probably Tupperware invented those really cool ones today, today, the little popsicle makers. Yeah,

Kristin Nilsen 41:26

my we have a big argument in my house. This drives Mike crazy, crazy. Whenever I sing the hanker for a hunk of cheese song and I say a slice of slab a chunka, and he's like, it's a Hunka. He's just so angry that I'm not doing it the proper way. This is a big fight in our house, okay?

Michelle Newman 41:43

Because I'm not sure Brian knows all the words to that. In fact, this morning, when I was printing out my notes, I was like, Oh, sing the sing the time for timer song, because it just cracks me up, but chunk up. I think it is,

Kristin Nilsen 41:59

either way, he's mad that I'm doing it wrong and I'm not working hard enough to do it correctly. I think that's what bothers out most, is I'm not working hard enough to do it correctly. Well,

Carolyn Cochrane 42:06

if that's his biggest problem with you, then you know what he's doing. Okay? Doubt, no. Doubt.

Michelle Newman 42:13

We're moving on to number four, and I would argue this is the most memorable of them all, probably, probably because of its simplicity and one that has had a long life.

Unknown Speaker 42:25

This is your brain. This is drugs.

Unknown Speaker 42:34

This is your brain on drugs.

Unknown Speaker 42:39

Any questions this

Michelle Newman 42:40

PSA is officially titled frying pan, but is also known as fried egg or any questions. And the 32nd original version is from 1987 and it fit right in in the just say no campaign of the 80s. Yeah, that's right. This shows a man he's in the kitchen. He asks if there's anyone out there who still doesn't understand. The dangers of drug abuse. It's just so simple and brilliant, right? Holds up the egg and just says, this is your brain. Points to the frying pan. This is drugs, cracks open the egg, and it just immediately starts sizzling. And he says, this is your brain on drugs, looks right at the camera and says, any questions. And so I think that was really impactful.

Kristin Nilsen 43:20

It's the any questions. I think it's the it's his deadpan, any questions, like, basically what he's saying is, are you a dumb ass?

Michelle Newman 43:29

No, because there should not be any dumb ass drugs. Well, your brain will fry. However, I and I remember this one, the version which featured 18 year old actress Rachel Lee Cook, who, as like 10 years earlier, she holds up the egg and says, This is your brain. She lifts up the frying pan with the words, and this is heroin. Then she places the egg on the kitchen counter and says, This is what happens to your brain after snorting heroin, and just slams the pan right down on the egg. She lifts the pan back up and says, and this is what your body goes through, in reference to the remnants of the smashed egg, which is now dripping from the bottom of the pan. And it's down her arm. And then this is the part that I remember. She goes, Wait, it's not over yet, and proceeds to smash everything in the kitchen with the frying pan and a rage yelling, this is what your family goes through and your friends and your money and your job and your self respect and your future, and then she just ends with and your life. She drops the pan on the counter and just says, Any questions, I've got Kristen's face right now. Do you remember that one?

Kristin Nilsen 44:36

I do not remember this, just your description of it. Has got goosebumps all over my it's just really brilliant. And then

Michelle Newman 44:42

there was a third one, and this was in 2016 so like I said, this is a long lasting PSA, I don't remember this one, but it says it's a loose remake, basically, of the first one shows the egg and a human hand stating, This is your brain alongside a frying pan that the other hand is pointing to, saying this. As drugs. The egg is cracked, fried in the pan. This is your brain on drugs. Any questions? But now this is followed by scenes of teens, some of who state, yeah, I have questions. Prescription Drugs aren't as bad as street drugs, right? Weeds legal, isn't it? Drinking is worse than smoking weed, isn't it? Why is heroin so addictive? Molly just makes you feel happy, right? I have questions, Mom, Dad, did you ever try drugs? The narrator returns to say they're going to ask be ready. And I feel like this is so great, because I feel like it's reflecting the times like how by 2016 we were more comfortable talking about difficult things and asking questions. It was more, it was just more in the norm, right? And it was more norm for us to want to encourage our kids to ask questions. I know that, like you said, just a conversation, we all certainly encouraged our kids. There's nothing, you can't ask us about this or whatever. And so I just find that, like you said at the beginning, where he just goes any questions, like, no, there shouldn't be any questions. Dumb. Questions, dumbass. This is your brain on drugs. No, look at those questions that in the 2016 PSA they're asking. But wait, I do actually have questions legal or Wait, does is this one worse than this one and they're going to ask? Be ready? And it does

Kristin Nilsen 46:17

reflect the more complex times as well. Because if you think about when we were in high school, you there was drinking, there was pot smoking, and maybe if you had a lot of money, there was cocaine. But beyond that, it was pretty simple. Maybe I'm, maybe I'm, I'm ignorant, I don't know, but it just seems like in 2016 there were a lot more things and a lot more issues, right?

Carolyn Cochrane 46:43

And that ad kind of taps into the nostalgia of it, like for us as the parents. I mean, that's kind of a message to us, and we're remembering, oh yeah, like, how we felt when we saw it. And just as you said, the evolution and, oh my gosh, those are legit questions. And well, there's a lot more out there than those three things mentioned Kristen,

Kristin Nilsen 47:06

and now we're talking to a new generation of parents. It's not the boomer parents anymore. Now we're the Gen X parents, and we are hyper aware of where our children are and what they're doing. And we want to be ready. We want to

Carolyn Cochrane 47:18

be ready. Yes, so coming in at number three. Everybody

Kristin Nilsen 47:22

is woodsy owl. Give a hoot.

Carolyn Cochrane 47:27

Oh, our dear friend, woodsy owl in this little jaunty, Robin Hood esque outfit, right?

Michelle Newman 47:36

So cute. And can't you sing the song in your head?

Unknown Speaker 47:38

Don't pollute.

Carolyn Cochrane 47:50

We were introduced towards the owl on September 15, 1971 as a part of an anti littering campaign from the United States Forest Service. Okay? Thank you guys remember, like, I don't think litter was even a concept for our parents. I don't know that they even understood, you know, dropping stuff on the ground, not that they did, but litter and pollution were just a huge thing, like the litter bags, don't you remember the bags? And we keep one in our car, and,

Kristin Nilsen 48:19

yeah, just the word litter is such a 1970s term. But

Michelle Newman 48:23

then the word and the term litter bug was litter bug. Well, yeah, litter bug. You litter bug. And that was like, that can make me cry. Pocket Michelle's a litter bug. I

Carolyn Cochrane 48:36

think that these campaigns, the anti litter ones, were very effective. There is just a huge amount of guilt and shame I feel if maybe something I had didn't make it into the trash can, like I'm quick to go pick it up. I could never just throw something out the window in the car, ever. I mean, that was just no, you

Kristin Nilsen 48:55

would never drop something on the ground, right? Never. It was very, very effective.

Carolyn Cochrane 48:59

The genius of the campaign was woodsy's ability to connect with children, instilling a sense of environmental stewardship in young minds. He wasn't just preaching. He was like a friend and a guy. I mean, yeah,

Michelle Newman 49:14

help woodsy spread the word. Never be a dirty bird. It was all happy. It was so cute. It was very and they were all skipping along with them, yes,

Carolyn Cochrane 49:27

like the pied piper, yeah. And he was very effective. And I remember getting, like, coloring sheets a lot. I don't know if there was always a contest every year, like a coloring contest of woodsy and then you sent it to the Forest Service. But interestingly enough, I'm so glad he's an owl, because the Forest Service debated some other options for the mascot. Instead of an owl, we could have had a raccoon, a ladybug, a moose or a rainbow trout. Just imagine a rainbow trout with a little Robin Hood cap on him, just trying to tell it. I feel like.

Those big fish lips and he woodsy lives on. He is still a mascot with the US Forest Service, and has become a rallying cry, really, for all generations for environmental action. I mean, ever since our generation came about. I want to point out that we are so aware of litter and the environment that a lot of the conversations happening now with maybe taking back some of the environmental regulations that have been in place, and we're just like, No, no, this is part of how we grew up with no, this is wrong. We can't we can't do these things

Kristin Nilsen 50:41

woodsy. What would he say exactly, www do? What would woodsy do? Yes, and

Carolyn Cochrane 50:48

I mean, honestly, it's, I think it's one of the reasons I get so enraged. I want to say exactly that, like, what would woodsy do? This is wrong. We learned this since we were kids, just part of like

Kristin Nilsen 51:00

the way they were able to encourage us to to not litter and to pick up and to clean up and to protect the Earth. This was where the happy warrior came from, right? I remember being on vacation at Crater Lake National Park, big camping vacation, right? And if you went to the ranger station, you could get a big woodsy owl plastic bag. And then if you picked up litter and you brought it back to the ranger station, you'd get, like a patch for your jean jacket. And I just remember feeling like woodsy owl would be so proud of me. And it became quite a contest, like my brother and I were on a mission. I did not see any scenery because I was looking at the ground the whole

Carolyn Cochrane 51:43

time campaign.

Kristin Nilsen 51:46

I've had my green plastic bag with me wherever we went, and I was manically looking for garbage to fill up that bag. I was like, you

Carolyn Cochrane 51:54

wanted someone to have litter just so yeah,

Unknown Speaker 51:58

so I can win probably

Michelle Newman 52:00

some of our issues today are because the landfills are so full of green plastic bags from the 70s. Oh my god, they probably weren't recyclable. You

Kristin Nilsen 52:11

know what? I'm just putting this together right now. You guys, I personally have a lot of difficulty with the with the notion of landfills, with the image of landfills, I'm terrified. I'm like, what if they fill up? And then what happens? I mean, pretty soon the whole earth doesn't be covered with landfills. And so my garbage in my kitchen takes up too much emotional space in my brain, and sometimes I'll see Mike, like, put some recycling in the garbage, and I'm like, oh my god, what have you just done? What did you do? And and it's literally like an injury to me. And it's again, it's a fear. It comes back to fear. It's not that I'm a do gooder. It's not that I'm self righteous. I literally fear this image I have of the earth being covered with garbage. I

Carolyn Cochrane 52:56

think that we might have been given that image in, I think, ways back then I have that same image, and I too say, what's going to happen? Like, how are we going to do this? If it's not going to go anywhere? Where is it going to go and it's not disintegrating, obviously? And I agree, there's this kind of level of fear underlying absolutely

Kristin Nilsen 53:19

garbage. It's an anxiety that I own this as an anxiety, and some people don't have this anxiety. And I'm not saying that I'm better than other people for thinking about it more, because it does come from a place of anxiety, right? Well, I think

Carolyn Cochrane 53:32

a lot, as we've talked about a lot of these campaigns, really kind of took advantage of our fears, and knowing that, that is a motivating there's maybe no singular motivating factor for people greater than fear,

Kristin Nilsen 53:46

and yet, they didn't mislead us either. I mean, this is true that eventually we're going to run out of room and we're all going to be living on a garbage heap,

Carolyn Cochrane 53:53

exactly. But, and they did it with scary images, which, you know, left barely worked, yeah, exactly, exactly. So woodsy definitely left his mark on us, as with this gentleman in our number two spot, Smokey Bear, as one of our followers pointed out rather emphatically, that there is no the in his name, he is Smokey Bear, like his first name is smokey, and his last name is Bear. We wouldn't call Kristen, Kristen the Nilsson or Michelle, Michelle the Newman. So if you get nothing else out of today's episode, you leave with the knowledge that it's smokey, Bear.

Kristin Nilsen 54:35

I can't, okay, I can't. It doesn't roll off the tongue. It just doesn't. And I know I understand. I do have the information now, because I did go deep on this at one point, because I was so bothered by the fact that, yes, indeed, his name is officially Smokey Bear. That really is his name like, well, how come this whole generation of children is calling him Smokey the Bear? It's because of a song, because the rhythm of the song was, they couldn't go smoke. Smokey Bear, Smokey Bear. So they went, Smokey the Bear, Smokey the Bear. That was his theme song, and they couldn't be smokey e bear,

Speaker 4 55:09

Smokey the Bear. Smokey the Bear, growling and a growling and a sniff in the air, he can find a fire before it starts to flame. That's why they call him smokey. That was how he got his name.

Carolyn Cochrane 55:25

And I don't even know that I knew the song about Smokey the Bear. I called him Smokey the Bear too. Like I almost thought the bear was one word, like, Yeah, but totally Smokey the Bear. Now, I mean, if you were on any kind of trivia show, if you're in jeopardy, I don't think they would give you credit for the right answer. Okay, that's Smokey the

Kristin Nilsen 55:42

Bear. We do have to ask that question. Yeah, Alex Trebek said that I didn't get Smokey the Bear, right? I would go to court. What's the tagline

Carolyn Cochrane 55:50

you remember from our friend, Smokey Bear?

Kristin Nilsen 55:54

Only you can prevent forest fires again. No pressure, no. It's

Carolyn Cochrane 55:59

right. Only the big finger, the big That's right. And you was like, that word was all capital letters, y, o, u, yeah. Again, pressure, not, not much, excuse me, that's really scary. That's

Michelle Newman 56:11

a lot of responsibility. The little cartoon, I went back and watched one of them, and it's like, you know, showing the family making sure you put out your campfire. And it says, Don't be responsible for forest fire. That scared the bejesus out of me thinking like I didn't want to be responsible for right? You know, not pushing my chair into my desk when we left for lunch, like I couldn't handle what that would feel like to be the one responsible of an entire force burning down. Well, Smokey, the bear is all over the state of Colorado, as he is, I'm sure in northern you know, he was in northern Minnesota, where you'd see, you know, fire danger high today, fire danger. They still use him today.

Kristin Nilsen 56:52

Interesting. He's on the big sign where they put the level of fire danger. And that makes me so happy that this bear is still relevant, and he's still in charge of telling us who's gonna who's responsible for fire. That's

Carolyn Cochrane 57:04

right. And you guys, he is looking pretty good. He turned 80 this year. Okay, can you believe that? And you know, it's kind of a sad story. I don't know if you remember, but he was born in 1944 amidst the backdrop of a devastating wildfire season, which caused him to be orphaned. So when they introduced him to the public, yes, they said it's because of these awful wildfires that Smokey's, you know, parents burned up and died, and so he's orphan. I mean, I didn't say it like that, but yeah, so we had this like, oh my gosh, like not realizing that our behaviors and these fires could kill his

Kristin Nilsen 57:44

parents. Could kill his parents. It's

Michelle Newman 57:46

like Bambi. Listen, that just adds such another level of fear to little Michelle's like, put you're going to orphan 1000s of animals. Yeah, and I'm so I want to go give Smokey Bear A big hug right now. He was an orphan the whole time.

Carolyn Cochrane 58:01

Yes, he was. And you know what? It might be kind of fun to give him a hug right now, because 10 years ago, when he turned 70, he got a little work done. He's a little more chiseled these days. Our smokey isn't quite as pudgy and stuff. He was

Kristin Nilsen 58:17

a little rotund, wasn't he? Yeah, he's looking a

Carolyn Cochrane 58:20

little buff, I gotta say, these days. So

Michelle Newman 58:21

smoke. Yeah, I think he's got biceps.

Carolyn Cochrane 58:24

I think he might packs.

Kristin Nilsen 58:26

He's got some nice packs. Good for you. Smokey.

Michelle Newman 58:32

Sexualizing orphan bear. That's what our societies come to. We need to sexualize the bear. Maybe people will pay more attention and won't start fires if he's sexy in telling them that fire danger is high, be like, yeah, suck it, you pudgy bear. I'm not putting out my campfire, but if I want to impress the buff, but the buff bear,

Unknown Speaker 58:56

now put on my campfire,

Michelle Newman 58:58

I want to be in good favor of that bit. Oh, gosh.

Carolyn Cochrane 59:03

Okay. Now, without further ado, in the number one spot, we have crying Indian. Oh, my God, I know. And that's kind of what it's referred to. That's right. And we know you all have that image in your head right now, as if I even need to describe the ad, but I'm going to you'll remember the ad depicted a Native American man in traditional garb paddling a canoe through a polluted river, and we don't know it's polluted at first. We first just see him paddling, and then the camera pulls back and we see that he is in this polluted river.

Kristin Nilsen 59:41

And then after he's out of his canoe, you see him standing on the side of the road while traffic is careening by at increasingly faster speeds. And then there's a big white station wagon, just like the one you had when you were a kid. And as it careens by, the mom rolls down. Window and throws all their McDonald's trash out the window.

Carolyn Cochrane 1:00:05

Yes, who does that? I don't know single a single tear will smell the man's cheek. Oh my gosh. You guys also like fear is a powerful motivator. This motivated us kind of out of shame and responsibility and guilty, yes, and the responsibility, like, which, this is what I talk about in therapy all the time, like I'm responsible for someone's feelings, like I made somebody sad and cry. Okay, you want to talk about motivating people. That's that might motivate me more than fear. I know that I did something that made somebody cry, yeah, and it probably affected a lot of people, because this, the emotional impact that that ad had has made it one of the most memorable PSAs of its time, and which is probably why it comes in at number one on our countdown, yes, and because we

Kristin Nilsen 1:00:58

all felt like shit, yeah, after seeing that, that poor man's face with the tears coming down his face, and

Carolyn Cochrane 1:01:04

any time I would see, occasionally, someone throw something out of a car window, or see someone litter, I would say to myself, or kind of out loud, like, they're making the Indian cry, yes, which, yes, like how I always thought of, you know, somewhere that man is crying, and I don't want to be a part of that as much as we love that ad, and it definitely did what it wanted to do. We have to recognize that while this was an impactful and memorable campaign to us, its stereotypical portrayal of Native Americans, as well as its use of a non Native American actor in the role, highlighted the appropriation of Native American culture for commercial and political purposes, because, if you remember, we've shared this information in previous episodes, but the actor who played the Native American in the canoe and on the side of the road was Iron Eyes Cody. He passed himself off as Native American, but he was actually Italian, yes, but it's so bad that he, you know, tried to, I mean, he lied about it. He

Kristin Nilsen 1:02:10

lied, yeah, he that was his persona, and he actually wore that garb like in his daily life. It's weird.

Carolyn Cochrane 1:02:17

It is so weird. So two things can be true at one time. This can be memorable and impactful, and this ad can come up as number one in our PSA countdown. But yet now we can also recognize that, yes, it was cultural appropriation. It was not something that we would be acceptable today. Thank goodness that we have come to realize that this is not the right thing to do, yeah? You can even

Kristin Nilsen 1:02:41

look at the beginning of the ad, when he's in the when he's in the canoe, and everything like that. And they have these, these drum beats, and it's supposed to sound like a traditional powwow or something like that. I can 100% assure you that that was a white guy in a studio going do someone sounds like Indians do? Yeah, right. It's probably was not anything traditional or real, and that is the very definition of appropriation.

Carolyn Cochrane 1:03:06

Yeah. So this campaign can be both memorable and a significant landmark in history, and also serve as a reminder of the sensitive and respectful representation for marginalized communities in media and advertising, so not even just the Native American population, but it can promote a discussion about how we have used different ethnicities and nationalities and marginalized communities in ways that were not right just to sell a piece of, you know, clothing or whatever great, right? Good.

Kristin Nilsen 1:03:36

And yet, I would love to have a discussion of people our age and what kind of feelings they got from that ad, right? Not even what the result was, or how you live your life today. But did you feel shame and anguish? Did you cry? I mean, I was fighting tears when I would see his face.

Michelle Newman 1:03:53

Oh, I can remember being very, very young, but getting it, yeah, yeah, I got what the meaning, like, the larger meaning of it was, it wasn't just don't pollute. I actually got Yeah,

Carolyn Cochrane 1:04:04

yeah, the repercussions, the like, right, it was real time wrecking

Michelle Newman 1:04:08

their land. Basically, like, what have you done? What are you doing? And

Kristin Nilsen 1:04:11

I did feel very angry at adults. This ad campaign made me feel like it was the kids who were trying to convince the parents who were throwing the litter out the garbage, and you're like, Mom, Mom, stop it. You're gonna make him cry again.

Michelle Newman 1:04:30

You guys, I felt much better about us, really, that we're just

Carolyn Cochrane 1:04:35

booming humans. It is crazy that how that was just so that that was such a motivating factor in these ads? Yeah,

Kristin Nilsen 1:04:46

I think we also have to acknowledge that there are almost none of these that would be made today. Not even woodsy owl would be made today because they'd be afraid of offending people who don't believe in climate change, right? Everything has become an issue. So, and it's worth asking the question, why doesn't society feel the need to warn people about things anymore? You know, per the per the it's 10pm Do you know where your children are at? Maybe it's because parents today do the warning. We do the warning, as in, they supervise their children in ways that 70s and 80s parents do not. And I'll also point out that banning is not the same as warning. Banning takes something away. Warning gives you the power to make good choices, which we clearly were very obsessed with doing, but as nutty and out of line as many of these ads were, we don't have anything in media today that's meant to enlighten us about anything misguided or not. There's nothing encouraging, anything really, all we see in media is selling, and that's it, yeah, and I'll leave you with that to ponder this week. Thank you for listening today, and we will see you next time. And

Michelle Newman 1:05:57

a huge thank you goes out to our Patreon members who take their support of this podcast to the next level with their monthly donations that make it possible for us to keep on trucking. Today, we are giving a huge shout out to patrons, Marcia, M, P, Diane, Richard, Laura, Shannon, Jen, Teresa, Dawn and Pamela, thank you all so much, and to all of our patrons. We love you. We appreciate you. And if you'd like to explore the fun perks our patrons get as a thank you for their support, just go to patreon.com P, A, T, R, E, O n.com, and put pop culture Preservation Society up in the search bubble. And one

Carolyn Cochrane 1:06:40

of the best ways you can support us is by rating and reviewing the podcast on whatever platform you listen. Those ratings help the podcast be shown to more people, and in turn, more ears tuning in, and then more of us are helping to preserve the pop culture nuggets from our youth.

Kristin Nilsen 1:06:56

In the meantime, let's raise our glasses for a toast, responsibly, metaphorically, and I will take away all of your keys if I have to, courtesy of the cast of Three's Company, two good times, two Happy Days,

Carolyn Cochrane 1:07:12

Two Little House on the Prairie. Cheers.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai