USDA Forest Service Reins in Freewheeling Woodsy the Owl
34 Comments Published by Joel January 15th, 2007 in Survival. Share This
As a child, a man-sized brown owl would visit my school, leading us in a song that I remembered this very morning, as I sang it to my girlfriend while she sharpened her bayonets.
Give a hoot, don’t pollute!
Don’t be a dirty bird!
In the city or in the woods,
help keep America looking good!
Prompted by my song—which she’d never heard, having gone to an inferior elementary school—we began to look for evidence of the song’s mascot, Woodsy the Owl, on the web. We found him…or what was left.
I do not like to abuse the strong position of social power afforded me as proprietor of this web site, but I am shocked and dismayed to discover that Woodsy’s patrons, the USDA Forest Service, has chosen to scrap the plump, welcoming design of “Old Woodsy” [left]with an outfit that looks like a man with a giant chicken nugget for a head. It is my duty to bring this to your attention. They put shoes and a shirt on Woodsy!
I’m calling you out USDA Forest Service: Bring back Old Woodsy, perhaps the most adorable federally-owned mascot in the history of this great nation. If it were not bad enough that you’ve changed Woodsy’s image, you’re encouraging people to destroy the old costumes “beyond recognition.”
34 Responses to “USDA Forest Service Reins in Freewheeling Woodsy the Owl”
- 1 Trackback on Jan 15th, 2007 at 8:54 pm
I remember Woodsy, too. You just knew he was up for a party in a way that Smokey the Bear (despite the name) just wasn’t.
Looks like the new one has trimmed down a bit. I liked the round belt buckle better, too.
I found a Woodsy commercial from the 80s on youtube.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=-9tUpdpA27Y
I’m convinced that the new Woodsy is a lot more capable of defending himself when the kids attack the freak in the mascot outfit.
If anyone knows where to find a copy of the old Woodsy poster, let me know. He’s so cute! Why would they change him?
original Woodsy > new Woodsy
I had a Woodsy coloring book. I love it. And I know the song. It goes through my head constantly.
This new “Woodsy” is a travesty.
“…welcoming design of “Old Woodsy” [right]…” You do mean left, correct?
I throw my wholehearted support for a cheap CGI Woodsy to do battle with the Nasonex Bee, until hordes of terrified children complain, resulting in a cute anime Woodsy, based strongly on the original model.
Oh please. Woodsy was a flop from the beginning. Just some weird half-baked bird. Now for a real mascot – Smokey Bear and it’s not Smokey the Bear. Smokey Bear has no middle name and doesn’t need one anyway. He could take old pooh-pooh Woodsy with both hands (paws) tied behind his back. So long Woodsy and good riddance!
Sigh….why don’t these goobers do some real work? Giving Woodsy this makeover does nothing for him other that make him look like a goober. I am guessing this was done by the same brain trust that decided Smokey the bear should be called Smokey Bear. It’s a bear, the bear’s name is Smokey…Smokey the Bear, Bear isn’t his last bloody name….
I left the following letters for my senators. Please do the same!! (Copy this if you wish!)
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RE: USDA Forest Service
By the admission of their own report, the USDA Forest Service has used Woodsy the Owl for over 30 years to help promote awareness of pollution and the environment. This has been an effective tool which has been shown to be readily identifiable by a majority of children, as its slogan “Give a hoot, don’t pollute” is.
As anyone who has read the cliff-notes from “Marketing-101″ can tell you – if you have something that has well-established mind share amongst your target audience, you run with it.
This being the case, it is completely counter-productive for the USDA Forestry Service to have changed Woodsy to an “updated” image – not to mention that the newer image (right-side picture) is completely lame.
http://dethroner.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/01/woodsy.jpg
FURTHERMORE:
With war, starvation, poverty, underfunded schools, yadda-yadda-yadda everywhere in our country, what kind of government organization has the money to blow on “research” like this:
http://www.symbols.gov/documents/woodsy/WoodsyOwlSurvey-Final-Report-03apr11.pdf
If the content of this report *is* in fact true, why would they go and change it? If they were to disregard the results of their own findings, why conduct the research in the first place?
Please do the right thing and bring back old Woodsy.
This is bull. I call on everyone to litter as much as you possibly can, and to start as many forest fires as you can until the US Forest Service returns Woodsy and Smokey to the way they were meant to look! This is disgusting.
Goddammit!! What next?! Reading isn’t fundamental? Conjunctions aren’t a function? It IS easy being green? MotherF****er! Give a HOOT! This don’t compute!
I miss Old Woodsy, too! I was a member of the Woodsy Owl Club as a kid, and my Woodsy ID card once helped a lost wallet find its way back to me.
This new Woodsy looks like he’s ready to start his first day of making sandwiches at Subway!
He doesn’t even LOOK like an owl. Unlike Larry King.
Man, I had a stuffed Woodsy the Owl that I slept with every nite when I was a wee one…he had a glow in the dark belt buckle too. The new Woodsy just looks stupid and not a bit like an owl.
As someone who was fully adult (at least chronologically) by the 1970’s, I always viewed Woodsy Owl as a feeble attempt to revitalize on the heels of the first Earth Day and an unfortunate detractor from the more impressive Smokey the Bear.
Nevertheless, as Woodsy Owl has been in existence now for several decades it appears that it is time for a new generation to make their mark. Rather like the “New Coke” of forestry, perhaps. In any case, the new Woodsy Owl is just putrid. The entire staff and management of the organization conceptualized, designed, and approved this needs to be sacked. What a travesty.
The new Woodsy is a #$%@ing Furry!
@Justin:
Dude, I thought the same thing! It’s just a half fursuit instead of a full one, and it seems like it was quite the downgrade.
Though, granted, they are both /technically/ furries if you look at it that way… mascots and more skintight fursuits still technically fall equally under the ‘furry’ banner. Although the only exception here is that the original suit looks more like an owl, and less like some anthropomorphic..owl..thing.
I honestly think people who object to the change are on a nostalgia trip or something. I grew up in the seventies and am very familiar with the old “Woodsy”. Looking at it again with fresh eyes, it looks like a creepy, fat, ill-dressed caricature of some sort of animal-mutant wood gnome. I can just imagine 2-5 year olds scarred for life after seeing it. I can also imagine all the square 10-12 year old kids with creepy stickers of the old woodsy on their trapper-keepers.
The new woodsy looks a little more “hip”. but doesn’t look much like an owl to me…..
Sometimes the people of the internet get so bent out of shape about something without bothering to even read what they are reading. If you take a look at this page, about two-thirds of the way down, you’d realize that Woodsy was re-imagined about ten years ago. Ten years ago. This isn’t new.
I think part of why woodsy faded into obscurity was this…
spotted owl=woodsy
woodsy=spotted owl
The USFS lost their mascot that reminded the loggers of the spotted owl and their lost jobs!
The new woodsy sucks big time! Geeish.
Kudos to the person who posted the research! It was interesting to read the stats, especially with such a large sample. I was surprised the “Every litter bit hurts” wasn’t as popular as the other slogans, I like it. Also surprised that Republicans out-numbered Democrats. So, why did the R’s lose last time around?
anyway, they should have kept the original Woodsy, I mean, they resurrected Orville Redenbacher for cryin’ outloud! The new one is lame and kids won’t like him.
Chris is right, the old Woodsy and new Woodsy are both furries… but man, the updated version is one UGLY fursuit.
Speaking of which, have you seen Horribly Pixelated Woodsy?
For those who REALLY hate the old costume:
http://www.symbols.gov/woodsy/costume/oldcostume/destroy-costume.shtml
Don’t knock Smokey, I used to chill with him at the Folsom Zoo.
“Give a Hoot, Shoot an Owl” Lordy lordy. Let us keep the old one!
Ha! Seen this?!?
I feel like beating woody
Well they say Chuck Williams invented that slogan,, but in Holyoke Mass around 1967, they ran a poster contest,, and long before Chuck Williams had the slogan,, I had made a poster with the same slogan. I was the original inventor of it. Darn, I wish I still had that poster to prove it..
Man, classic Woodsy looks like he’d go and show you where the magic mushrooms grow and warn you if Witchy Poo is around.
In response to Richard Ripley (Jan 15, 2007)
Both Icons are represent 2 different organizations.
Woodsy Represents the Forest Service (Government) while Smokey Bear represents the State Forestry. They are both important in their domain and stand for different venues. My former husband worked for the Forestry and dressed as Smokey Bear to give programs to school children about forest fire prevention. The Garden Club that I am in has Woodsy as our mascot as he stands for what we are about, conservation.
As a matter of fact, Our Woodsy was a penny bank. We passed him around at our meetings for donations to pay for the church room where we hold our meetings. After being around for 20 or so years he finally met his demise. Our new treasurer accidentally dropped him on the tile floor of her kitchen and he broke into a million pieces. She was devastated. If anyone knows where we can get another Woodsy bank we would be most grateful!!!
In response to Carol from Feb., 2007:
Carol this may sound crazy, but in 1967 I was a 3rd grader and entered a national poster contest for the US Forest Service. I was living in Ohio at the time and won the local contest. The museum that was running the local contest told me that they sent my poster on to a national contest. I never heard anything else, so I assumed that I did not win in the national contest. However, just a couple of years later the US Forest Service came out with their new slogan. It was word for word exactly as I had it on the poster! I even used the mascot of Woodsy Owl.
Across the top of my poster I wrote “Woodsy Owl says: Give a hoot don’t pollute”
Somehow you must have come up with the same slogan for the same poster contest.
All I know is that Chuck Williams did not come up with the slogan himself. As an advisor to the Lassie show, I’ll bet he was one of the judges in the National Contest and sat on the slogan for a couple of years before he presented it to the Forest Service. Just like you, I wish I had the poster to prove it, but I was a 3rd grader, who new it would amount to anything. I remember my Dad telling me that by entering a poster contest we lost all “rights” to the slogan. I’ve never pursued it with the USFS especially when I found out that the slogan is a trademark of the US government.
My Dad is actually the person who came up with “Give a hoot don’t pollute” and I came up with the Woodsy Owl character.
Carol, I wish I could contact you to see if your story is simialr to mine.