Advertising in a nutshell (a very long-winded nutshell) and a thought about how we can be better.

I was recently sent a text of the “crying indigenous person” GIF from this ’70s commercial. You know the one even if it’s “before” your time. It’s been shared a gazillion times and still lives on, thanks to the beauty of the internet and the power of the campaign. It was such a popular ad that the image was circulated in papers, magazines, and plastered on billboards extensively throughout the 70s and early 80s. Even today, some 50 years later, the spot gets referenced in TV shows and sent around as a GIF or meme to, in this case, me.

If you don’t know, the familiar images or their parody are from a PSA about pollution released in 1971. What is depicted in the commercial itself is an indigenous man, Iron Eyes Cody, paddling up the river seeing accumulated trash in the water, refineries on the banks of the river, and as he pulls ashore we hear:

“Some people have a deep, abiding respect for the natural beauty that was once this country. And some people don’t. “People start pollution. People can stop it.”

When that voiceover concludes we see a congested highway where a passerby hucks a bag of fast food out the window of a speeding car that explodes at Iron Eyes Cody’s feet. In a powerful moment, he turns to the camera and we see a single tear roll down his cheek.

Okay. The ad won all of the awards and prizes and again was one of the most successful and enduring campaigns of all time in the US. So what's the problem right? I mean before I even bothered to investigate what happened with this spot, it felt weird that Iron Eyes Cody was being depicted as being distraught about trash and not, you know, genocide and or forced removal from ancestral lands but that was just my mind doing what it does. But what else? Well “Iron Eyes Cody” is an Italian American dude named Espera de Corti. Not an indigenous person. That’s not good and also very bad. Disengingous if you will. What do we call it? A lie. That’s a lie to garner support for what and by who? Yeah, who funded this bad boy?

I have a lot of rhetorical questions I know. Forgive me.

The American Can Co and the Owens-Illinois Glass Co funded it with the likes of Coca-Cola and the Dixie Cup Company jumping on board in the subsequent years. Were these companies just having an internal about-face and looking to scale back their own involvement with mass-produced trash and hoping to spread the word? Were they in this to do genuine good as best as they could? No. No, because at the same time that they were funding this and other campaigns, without disclosing their involvement mind you, they were actively blocking legislation that required manufacturers to move all of their offerings and products to reusable containers, you know the stuff that gives us a fighting chance at “Keeping America Beautiful” you know, what ol’ Iron Eyes is crying about. Why would they do that? Why would they promote their “Keep America Beautiful” campaign at the same time they’re trying to fuck the environment behind closed doors? It’s the same reason that the term Global Warming was rejiggered into “Climate Change” and it’s the same reason that so much emphasis has been placed on the actions of the individual and not massive entities like Chevron, BP, and Virgin Airlines. The guilt comes to you. Not massive corporations and habitual polluters on the scale of energy and transportation companies, but you. You hold the blame. It’s an important deflection and at the time it was important to make the general populace feel like they needed to reform their behaviors in relation to pollution so that business could carry on as usual. You know what else would have worked? If Dixie Cup didn't sell plastic-covered disposable paper cups that accumulated a ton of garbage. But it was far better for The American Can Co, The Owens-Illinois Glass Co, Coca-Cola, and Dixie Cup Co to go after the senseless littering of the individual and to take focus away from initiatives to regulate their own rampant and unsustainable production methods. Again what was on the table at the time was to force them to make reusable containers and that would have cost them more money and hurt the profit margins. Can’t have that.

So where are we? Ahh yes, advertising in a long-winded nutshell. It’s unbelievably powerful, a superpower actually if you will! The “crying indigenous man” is still here and maybe only as a parody but how many of you knew the real motive behind what has become a meme/GIF mainstay? It moved the needle back then. It killed a few initiatives to regulate an industry that desperately needed it.

We’re in an era where it’s still of the utmost importance to investigate claims and give everything we consume and see a second, third, and fourth pass. What am I seeing? Is this going to make the world a better or worse place? What is the actual message? As for Fernweh, we left corporate advertising inc. and co. to form our own, opposing version, to be as altruistic and as transparent as possible. Because we were tired of the lies. We want to stay as far away from that sly propaganda as possible. If it’s about selling garbage or making a quick buck we have to say:

“Unfortunately we won't be able to help and you’ll have to find someone else. With love in our hearts, we wish you the worst of luck.”

And really I have hope that this tirade will inspire you to consider your own words and images too. You already do, or you wouldn’t be here. But sometimes, we need to nudge each other and say “what exactly are we doing here?” In the most loving way we can.

Much Love,

Tim & Lisa