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Dick Prosapio aka, Coyote is a member of the TMC Advisory Council, ceremonialist, psycho-
therapist (ret.), author, leader of men's experiential workshops, & Co-founder of The Foundation for Common Sense. He lives with his wife and daughter in Stanley, NM

For more info about Dick Prosapio, visit his web-site:
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Curmudgeon Conflict

by
Dick Prosapio  © 2002

Curmudgeon Conflict

My favorite curmudgeon, Andy Rooney, mounted his horse a few Sundays ago and went after "patriotism" as manifested by the huge number of ads in print and television which use phrases like, "Let's roll!" and "Keep America Moving!" and so on. Being a natural curmudgeon myself, I usually sign on with Andy and even, when I'm in the mood to write one of those pieces, seem to turn on his voice inside my head as I write. But we part company on this particular issue. Not totally, but mostly.

It's not as if this kind of blending of corporate America and a war effort has never happened before. In World War Two, business support was everywhere. I don't think there was a single company, directly involved in the war effort or not, that didn't toot its horn by claiming it was "doing our bit for victory".

I found a 1944 issue of Colliers magazine, which was a big publication then, and checked out the ads. Here's a little sampling, International Harvester's ad was headed, "Invasion!" It was a full page spread showing a tractor rolling up on a beach full of troops. Part of the copy read, "Harvester and the International Industrial Power Distributors stand ready to do all in their power to see you through." The main idea being that non essential equipment should be taken care of till the war ended. General Motors stopped making cars and focused, among other things, on diesels. Their ad, headed, "Sound of the Future!" talked about what they were doing for the war effort and how that would pay off in peace production as well These two companies were involved directly, but how about "Lucky Strike goes to war!" (Lucky Strike was a brand of cigarettes.) Of course, a lot of people were smoking then and R. J. Reynolds, the makers of "Luckies", as they were called, did furnish the troops with smokes, so maybe they could justify their claim that way. But "Life Boy" soap ran the same kinds of ads and I doubt they supplied free soap to anyone.

Camel cigarettes had an entire back page of Colliers. The Camel slogan was, "FIRST in the Service." The ad implied that all the men in uniform smoked and they and Camels went together. They "..play together, fight together,"etc.

Frigidaire, which was then a division of General Motors, claimed, "Right now Frigidaire dependability counts more than ever." What they were talking about was that since they weren't making refrigerators till the war was over, everyone could trust that the old box would keep working for the duration.

And how about this one, "Rationing! Ceiling prices! Coupons to count! Nobody's busier than the girl behind the grocery counter. No wonder she has less time for important little details like brushing her teeth." This was from Listerine Tooth Powder.

Here are some random headlines from the ads I found in that WW ll Colliers, "When They Graduate into a World of Peace!" Hamilton Watches.

"Kodak 35, is with the ArmyNavy..Air Forces.Marines.In Uniform."

""How Coast Guard he-men sink the Dry Scalp demon!" Vaseline Hair Tonic.

"Uniting a Nation, Serving a Democracy." Railway Express

"For Distinguished Service to our country-Buy US War Bonds." Dewar's Scotch.

"Climb aboard the Victory Wagon, Buy a load of Bonds today, Bring Yanks and Grippers home to stay." Scovill Grippers and Fasteners.

I looked at some Civil War newspapers but didn't find evidence of companies involved in self promotion. But back then the government wasn't getting its major funding from big business. I didn't check out World War One papers.

Andy didn't think our country ought to play up our involvement in the Olympics and ignore the other nations participating. On that subject we are in agreement.

But we part company again over the flag pins a lot of people are wearing. Andy seems to think there is something ostentatious about it. I figure that if someone wants to say, by the wearing of one of those pins, that they are proud of who we are as a people and a Nation, well, good for them. That's what I feel I am saying when I wear mine. And if you don't wear one that doesn't make you anti-American as far as I'm concerned. That's one of the nice things about living here.

Andy was overseas in World War ll, maybe he missed all the advertising that went on here, but I doubt that anyone on the home front was very upset by it. Certainly there is nothing new about profiting from a war, that probably goes back farther than newspapers. Some of the ads I've seen lately are, in fact, a lot more tasteful than the older stuff. I think it was a GM CEO who said, back around the Eisenhower administration, that the business of America is business and followed that by saying, "What's good for General Motors is good for America."

It may not look good on paper, and we may not want to believe it because it doesn't sound high minded enough, but if all our major corporations went into the tank, our economy and our government would soon follow. I doubt that any country in the world would like to see that happen since our well being is the corner stone for the rest of the world.

So Andy, if Pfizer wants to say, "Let's roll!" and stick up a picture of Uncle Sam rolling up his sleeves in an ad and the point is to assure all of us that we're not going to get shaky legged over what we have to undertake now, hooray!

And if our involvement in this, "War on terrorism." can really end what is actually a calculated, cold blooded murderous assault on innocent civilians, men, women and children, from the Middle East to Northern Ireland to New York, and it's supporters want nothing more than to create anarchy or destroy us and our system, I say let's stop them!

Nobody is so foolish to believe that we'll all run out and buy more "Crest" toothpaste just because Proctor and Gamble says they support our troops and we won't buy "Aim" because Chesebrough-Ponds hasn't mentioned the war in their ads.

Frankly, I don't care if every company in the world wants to stick its logo on the effort to win this battle.