AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Smokey Bear, one of the most recognizable figures in advertising history, turned 80 last week. From member station KNAU in Flagstaff, Ariz., Melissa Sevigny traces the campaign's history and questions about its future.
MELISSA SEVIGNY, BYLINE: The Disney story of "Bambi" sparked the idea. When the movie hit theaters in 1942, children all over the nation experienced the terror of a forest fire. Disney lent the image of Bambi to the U.S. Forest Service for a campfire safety campaign. But when the agreement expired, the forests needed a new spokesperson. Enter Smokey Bear. Nina Hubbard of the Prescott National Forest says early images of Smokey...
NINA HUBBARD: They were a little more cartoonish and, yeah, a little less human-looking, more bear, kind of the classic potbelly bear like your teddy bear at home.
SEVIGNY: Then in 1950, a crew of Taos Pueblo firefighters in New Mexico rescued a real bear cub from a wildfire, and Smokey became a living legend. Hubbard says letters flooded the cub's new home at the National Zoo.
HUBBARD: Everybody rooted for him, and seeing him grow up, so to speak, in the ad campaign, I think people just really connected with that.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SMOKEY THE BEAR SONG")
UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL GROUP: (Singing) Smokey the Bear.
SEVIGNY: Soon, Smokey got a theme song.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SMOKEY THE BEAR SONG")
UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL GROUP: (Singing) Prowling and a-growling and a-sniffing the air.
SEVIGNY: In the late '70s and '80s, an artist named Rudy Wendelin created the iconic image of Smokey in a yellow hat and blue jeans. An exhibit of Wendelin's paintings is now traveling the country, including to the Sharlot Hall Museum in Prescott, where Jackson Medel is the curator.
JACKSON MEDEL: This is one of our rotating exhibit spaces.
SEVIGNY: Medel chose the most dramatic painting to hang directly in front of the door. It shows a grim-looking Smokey standing among charred stumps, framed by a fiery orange sky.
MEDEL: Visually, it's very striking, but it's also, I think, powerful in terms of the core message of Smokey, and the idea behind it is that there is responsibility around fire management.
SEVIGNY: Personal responsibility - that's the heart of Smokey's message. But former wildland firefighter Sarah Berns wonders if it's past time for an update.
SARAH BERNS: I mean, that's the thing with Smokey, is that he's kind of frozen in time. I feel like it's time to dust him off and, like, shake the ice crystals out of his hairy ears and give him a megaphone.
SEVIGNY: A megaphone for a new message, that not all wildfire is bad. Fires these days burn bigger and hotter in overcrowded forests. Foresters say the solution is more healthy, prescribed fire. That's a message of community responsibility Berns would love to see Smokey adopt.
BERNS: The images that we see of wildfires come with words like devastation and loss, and I feel like it would be amazing if Smokey Bear started using words like restoration, rebirth.
SEVIGNY: She adds, why not make Smokey's voice younger, hipper, even female? The Ad Council has made some steps in that direction, like in this 2021 ad.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
ISABELLA GOMEZ: Hey, guys, it's me, Isabella Gomez, filling in for Smokey Bear, because he's got more to say than just...
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As Smokey Bear) Only you can prevent wildfires.
SEVIGNY: But the focus on campfire safety hasn't changed. Some say it doesn't need to. Nearly 9 out of 10 wildfires in the U.S. are caused by people. And until that changes, Smokey's advocates say, it's not time for him to retire yet.
For NPR News, I'm Melissa Sevigny.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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