The Advertising Council, the U.S. Forest Service, and the National Association of State Foresters released today a new Smokey Bear advertising campaign. It includes the poster above, the video below, radio PSAs, and an educational DVD. The announcement is a little ahead of the Smokey Bear web site and his Facebook page, which will probably have more details later.
The video is about 8 minutes long. It is animated and is directed at children, educating them about campfire safety.
The video is pretty good, and will probably be effective for the intended audience, young children. But I was disappointed that the voice of Smokey is no longer Sam Elliott,
who took over the role as Smokey’s voice in June, 2008 when a new series of PSAs was launched. One of Elliott’s first PSAs was cancelled after a controversy about the use of ATVs in the forest, but his voice was used in other videos. Washington D.C. radio station WMAL personality Jackson Weaver served as Smokey’s voice until his death in 1992. The voice was then silent until Elliott resurrected it in 2008.
Information about the 2009 Smokey Bear campaign.
That Sam Elliott has the sexiest voice ever. You could have never picked anyone better for this script. Fan for life of Sam Elliott.
Actually, Sam Elliot is still the voice of Smokey, but only for his famous line, “Only you can prevent wildfires,” which runs at the end of each radio and TV PSA produced since 2008.