After the ‘Crying Indian,’ Keep America Beautiful Starts a New Campaign

Original article on The New York Times

More than 40 years after teaming up to create the iconic “crying Indian” advertising campaign, Keep America Beautiful and the Advertising Council have joined forces to promote the benefits of recycling.

The new public service campaign, created by Pereira & O’Dell, uses a plastic bottle and aluminum cans — recycled, respectively, into a bench and a sports stadium — to illustrate how recyclable materials can be given a second, useful life.

Established 60 years ago, Keep America Beautiful began collaborating with the Ad Council in 1960, initially using a character named Susan Spotless to promote anti-littering efforts with taglines like “Every litter bit hurts” and “Don’t be a litterbug.”

On Earth Day in 1971, the two organizations introduced the “crying Indian” commercial, which was created by Marsteller Advertising and featured the actor Iron Eyes Cody paddling a canoe through polluted waters and crying at the spectacle. Ad Age named the advertising — which was aimed at promoting individual responsibility in protecting the environment and ran until 1983 — one of the top 100 campaigns of the 20th century.

Read the original article by Jane Levere posted on The New York Times>>