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The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), the Fire Marshals Association of North America, organized the first fire prevention day to commemorate the great Chicago fire in 1911. The event grew to such proportions that they ended up making the event a week long in 1922.
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Bambi was used as the "spokesperson" of the forest fire prevention campaign. Disney had allowed Bambi to be used for only a year.
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The Japanese had launched over 9,000 balloon borne incendiary devices via submarines targeting the Pacific Northwest
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The debut poster depicting Smokey Bear was released continuing with the popular animal theme of Bambi
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The original slogan was made. "Remember...Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires."
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Ad Council sponsored radio advertisements, featuring Smokey Bear "in conversation" with prominent American celebrity stars such as Bing Crosby, Art Linkletter, Dinah Shore, Roy Rogers, and many others.[
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A bear cub was rescued from a forest fire in New Mexico. Upon rehabilitation, the bear was sent to the National Zoo in D.C. Now the campaign had a real life face.
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Removed the character from the public domain and placed it under the control of the Secretary of Agriculture. The act provided for the use of Smokey's royalties for continued education on the subject of forest fire prevention.
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A Smokey Bear doll was vended by Ideal Toys. The doll included a mail-in card for children to become Junior forest rangers.
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In 1955, the first children’s book was published, followed by many sequels and coloring books. Soon thousands of dolls, toys, and other collectibles were on the market.
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Rankin/Bass produced an animated television special for ABC, named The Ballad of Smokey the Bear, narrated by James Cagney.
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Smokey died after living for 26 years in the National Zoo.
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The Wall Street Journal included an obituary for Smokey Bear on the front page of the paper, on Nov 11, 1976
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Smokey Bear was honored with a U.S. postage stamp that pictured a cub hanging onto a burned tree
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Modification of the slogan was made to “Only You Can Prevent Wildfires.” The change came in response to a number of fires that had occured outside of the forest. In addition, the term ‘wildfire” applies to any unwanted, unplanned, uncontrolled outdoor fire as Smokey Bear now promotes fires for forest ecology through controlled burning.
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"The campaign had essentially remained unchanged for almost 60 years, which is remarkable" said Brad B. McCormick, the project's Senior Producer in Ruder Finn's Interactive Group (RFI). "But once the Ad Council decided to revamp both the tone and audience of Smokey's message, we realized what a major changed that was, and that we needed to create a web presence for Smokey that would justify and support that change for years to come."
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Called upon the President to issue a proclamation "calling upon the people of the United States to observe the day with appropriate ceremonies and activities."
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“Smokey has always been a vehicle for education and information on how to prevent wildfires, but we wanted to shift beyond education to advocacy,” added Scott Murray, creative director of Draftfcb. “This is really Smokey asking people to step in his shoes and become an advocate in his absence, which is how we got into the idea of people getting their Smokey on.”
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New commercials featuring Smokey Bear rendered in CGI were released.
