I'd say this particular PSA has been dissected six ways to Sunday. But what interests me most is the imagery between about 0:15 and 0:25.
To some extent, it's probably just using belching factories as an icon of ecological destruction. But it's hard to avoid acknowledging that they're almost certainly privately-owned factorties, and that, at least for a few brief seconds, the implied message of the ad dovetails with what more-left wing proponents of environmentalism were starting to say at the time.
Is there any way this sort of thing can become a trend, not just in environmentalist PSAs but throughout the genre generally?
I'm tempted to say that public financing of election campaigns would make a difference, since under private funding, politicians are unlikely to greenlight PSAs that directly attack the corporations who bankroll their careers. However, apparently the Keep America Beautiful org was originally funded by several large corporations. I'm not sure what their involvement was by the early 70s.
I do recall, in the late 90s or so, some Canadian anti-smoking PSA that tried to appropriate the language of the emerging anti-globalization movement, with hip-looking kids addressing the camera and talking about how you shouldn't smoke because "the money just goes to big globalized corporations". But that seemed like a rather lame attempt at coat-tailing on someone else's ideology, and anyway, as an argument it's pretty vulnerable to an ad absurdum, ie. "But aren't clothes, books, and skateboards also sold by large corporations?"
To some extent, it's probably just using belching factories as an icon of ecological destruction. But it's hard to avoid acknowledging that they're almost certainly privately-owned factorties, and that, at least for a few brief seconds, the implied message of the ad dovetails with what more-left wing proponents of environmentalism were starting to say at the time.
Is there any way this sort of thing can become a trend, not just in environmentalist PSAs but throughout the genre generally?
I'm tempted to say that public financing of election campaigns would make a difference, since under private funding, politicians are unlikely to greenlight PSAs that directly attack the corporations who bankroll their careers. However, apparently the Keep America Beautiful org was originally funded by several large corporations. I'm not sure what their involvement was by the early 70s.
I do recall, in the late 90s or so, some Canadian anti-smoking PSA that tried to appropriate the language of the emerging anti-globalization movement, with hip-looking kids addressing the camera and talking about how you shouldn't smoke because "the money just goes to big globalized corporations". But that seemed like a rather lame attempt at coat-tailing on someone else's ideology, and anyway, as an argument it's pretty vulnerable to an ad absurdum, ie. "But aren't clothes, books, and skateboards also sold by large corporations?"