Litter: A Land Betrayed ~ 1963 Keep America Beautiful

more at http://quickfound.net/

Produced by Higgins Productions.

Originally a public domain film from the Prelinger Archives, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and one-pass brightness-contrast-color correction & mild video noise reduction applied.

The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original).

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keep_America_Beautiful

Keep America Beautiful is a U.S. based nonprofit organization founded in 1953. It is the largest community improvement organization in the United States, with approximately 589 affiliate organizations (similar to local chapters) and more than 1,000 community organizations that participate in their programs.

Keep America Beautiful focuses on three key issues: litter prevention, waste reduction/recycling and community greening & beautification. This is accomplished through a combination of community organizing, public education and the fostering of public/private partnerships...

History

Keep America Beautiful was founded in 1953 by consortium of American businesses (including founding member Philip Morris, Anheuser-Busch, PepsiCo, and Coca-Cola) nonprofit organizations, government agencies, and concerned individuals in reaction to the growing problem of highway litter that followed the construction of the Interstate Highway System, and an increasingly mobile and convenience-oriented American consumer. The original goal of the organization was to reduce litter through public service advertising (PSA) campaigns.

Keep America Beautiful conducted many local PSA campaigns early in its history. One of these early campaigns in Pennsylvania (PENNDOT), some attribute to having coined the term "litterbug", as opposed to the New York Transit Authority. It was, however, coined by Paul B. Gioni, a copywriter in New York City who originated it for The American Ad Council in 1947. Keep America Beautiful joined with the Ad Council in 1961 to dramatize the idea that every individual must help protect against the effects litter has on the environment.

Gioni also wrote the copy for the popular television campaign theme in 1963, "Every Litter Bit Hurts". Another campaign in 1964 featured the character Susan Spotless.

In 1970, Keep America Beautiful began distributing a free brochure; more than 100,000 copies were requested within four months.

In 1971, a new campaign was launched on Earth Day with the theme, "People Start Pollution. People can stop it." In what became known as the "Crying Indian ad," the television ad featured actor Iron Eyes Cody, who portrayed a Native American man devastated to see the destruction of the earth's natural beauty caused by the thoughtless pollution and litter of a modern society.

In 1975, Keep America Beautiful introduced its "Clean Community System," which encouraged local communities to prevent litter through education efforts, advertising, local research, mapping of litter "hotspots", and cleanup activities. During the height of the campaign, it received over 2,000 letters a month from people wanting to join their local programs. The "Clean Community System" evolved into Keep America Beautiful's current network of roughly 580 local "Keep My Town Beautiful" organizations nationwide. By the end of the campaign, locals had succeeded in reducing litter by 88%.

In 1999, Keep America Beautiful introduced an annual "Great American Cleanup" campaign. Like its predecessor, the program focuses on local efforts at beautification. Volunteers organize to clean up litter and illegal dumpsites in their communities, as well as remove graffiti, and plant trees, flowers and community gardens...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Litter_in_the_United_States

Litter in the United States is an environmental issue and littering is often a criminal offense, punishable with a fine as set out by statutes in many places.

Litter laws, enforcement efforts, and court prosecutions are used to help curtail littering. All three are part of a "comprehensive response to environmental violators", write Epstein and Hammett, researchers for the United States Department of Justice. Littering and dumping laws, found in all fifty United States, appear to take precedence over municipal ordinances in controlling violations and act as public safety, not aesthetic measures. Similar from state-to-state, these laws define who violators are, the type or "function" of the person committing the action, and what items must be littered or dumped to constitute an illegal act...