Question: What long-running public service campaign began with the characters from Walt Disney’s Bambi?
Answer: The campaign against forest fires started during World War II, backed by the War Advertising Council. Early posters used wartime slogans, but the program gained real traction when Bambi proved a hit with audiences. In 1944, Disney allowed Bambi, Thumper, and the crew to appear in forest fire prevention ads (you can see the poster here). That campaign was so popular that the program decided to find a new animal symbol that belonged to them. They settled on a bear named Smokey, and the rest is history.
