Does Smokey Bears tagline work, or not?
In my recent article on nonprofit taglines, I pointed to the current Smokey Bear tagline as a great example. Most of you are familiar with this one: “Only you can prevent wildfires.” I admire its brevity, focus and emphasis on call to action. And the tagline really succeeds in engaging audiences, as it places a great deal of responsibility for preventing forest fires on “you.” Comment However, one Getting Attention reader had another perspective to offer: “There’s a problem with this tagline in terms of framing. I often read how wildfires result from public policy decisions about forest and prairie use and development. But this tagline limits public thinking about other ways of solving wildfire problems, and cuts short the public debate about land use.” Response Reader, you make a very good point, but from my perspective, a tagline can’t cover everything. If it’s crafted to do so, it tends to be too long or too vague. As a result, broad taglines generally fail. First thing, I reviewed
