20
Currents
January 2018
Bailey Woodruff Real Estate Co., Inc.
SPECIALISTE DE LA
CLIENTELE FRANCOPHONE
ENGLISH & FRANCAIS
27 Years Real Estate Experience
Pauline Morissette, P.A.
954-899-7967
954-482-0352
DIRECT
OFFICE
[email protected]
1874 C West Hillsboro Blvd. • Deerfield Bch Fl 33442
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mascots who can capture the public’s heart.
The Ad Council, created in 1942 as a non-profit,
volunteer organization, produces public service
advertisements focusing on social issues such as
environmental protection, public health and commu-
nity safety. This agency is responsible for launching
two of the most famous and beloved mascots. They
are Smokey Bear and McGruff the Crime Dog.
Wildfires present a threat to the environment,
property and human life. To stop them, you need
manpower. During WWII, however, there was a seri-
ous shortage of firefighters because so many men
had been drafted. In 1944, the Ad Council, in con-
junction with the US Forest Service, created a pro-
gram to educate local communities about fire-pre-
vention. To spread their message, they designed a
poster with a cute bear wearing jeans and a
rancher’s hat. Nicknamed Smokey Bear, his motto
was only YOU can prevent forest fires.
In the spring of 1950, a huge wildfire scorched
more than 17,000 acres in the mountains of New
Mexico. Millions of trees were destroyed, and count-
less animals and birds died in the blaze. A game
warden, inspecting the damage, noticed a baby bear
huddling in a tree. The frightened cub was alive, but
his paws and hind legs had been burned. The war-
den rescued the animal, and took him to a kind fam-
ily who nursed him back to health.
This story of this rescued cub went viral. Not sur-
prisingly, he was named Smokey Bear in honor of
the poster bear. When he grew too big to live with his
adopted “family, he was flown by private plane to the
National Zoo in Washington, D.C.
When the real-life Smokey Bear died in 1975, his
remains were flown back to New Mexico, and buried
in a park named in his honor: Smokey Bear Histori-
cal Park. Smokey Bear would be proud that he had
taught generations of American children the impor-
tance of respecting nature and preventing forest
fires.
Thirty-six years after Smokey Bear’s debut, the
Ad Council introduced a new mascot to lead the
campaign against the spiraling crime rate in the US.
McGruff the Crime Dog was an instant success.
Dressed in a creased trench coat, he looked like a
veteran detective. His motto was: Take a bite out of
crime!
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