COLUMBUS, Oh. – America’s forest fire fighting bear turned 75 Friday.
Smokey Bear was born in 1944 when the U.S. Forest Service and Ad Council teamed up to create a mascot to spread their message.
Forest fire prevention had become a big issue because many experienced fire-fighters were overseas fighting in World War Two.
That left fewer of them available to fight fires at home, Making prevention more important.
Smokey’s original tag-line was “care will prevent nine out of ten fires.”
Then in 1947, He started saying what we all know today: “Only you can prevent forest fires.”
To celebrate, his official twitter handle is asking people to post videos of themselves singing “Happy Birthday” to him.
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