On this day June 1, 1970, 55 years ago – a Public Relations flak realised there was money in the whole ecology thing – burnishing credentials etc.
Some business leaders and PR advisers warned that environmentalism might now be seized by “extremists” and the “radical left” to mobilize similar attacks on the entire business community. As PR consultant Clifford B. Reeves put it in 1970, the “environment” issue could become “a basis for a broad general attack on the entire industrial system, as well as individual companies.” Although such a broad-based critique of business and industry had not yet gained momentum, according to Reeves, environmental pollution “may be the thing that provides a basis for universal attack against private business institutions.” “As things are now shaping up,” he wrote, “industry is being cast as the villain of the piece. While its record is not all it should have been, industry has probably done more in a practical way than any other group to conserve resources and protect the environment. That story should be told more widely and forcefully, before adverse public opinion about industry hardens still further. Industry should be recognized as a willing partner in this movement, not an adversary.” Reeves urged steady progress in pollution abatement, combined with programs to publicize those voluntary efforts. He expressed hope that the “environment” could thus become a consensus issue, with industry viewed not as a villain but as a partner in the popular drive for environmental protection.
Conley, 2006 – p.70-71.
The quote is from
Conley, 2006 ENVIRONMENTALISM CONTAINED: A HISTORY OF CORPORATE RESPONSES TO THE NEW ENVIRONMENTALISM . PhD thesis
https://www.thecre.com/pdf/20160522_conley_dissertation.pdf
The reference to the Reeves is this –
Clifford B. Reeves, “Ecology Adds a New PR Dimension,” Public Relations Journal (June 1970), 7-9, which I intend to track down….
Anyway, check this out from Ali Smith’s astonishing new novel Gliff
“Their mother up at the farm had had some weedkiller spray bottles delivered, and the label came off one of the bottles and it had a note written on the inside of it saying it was from someone whose job was to screw the sprayheads on to bottles that the factory machine had mis-screwed, and it said it was from an eleven year old who was getting sick from breathing weedkiller and wanted someone to help them. Which must have been a lie, his mother’d said, because the weedkiller said on the other side of the label that it was the bio-pure kind and that there was nothing poisonous to humans in it. Which is why she’d bought it.”
(Smith, 2024:107-8)
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 325ppm. As of 2025, when this post was published, it is 430ppm. This matters because the more carbon dioxide in the air, the more heat gets trapped. The more heat, the more extreme weather events. You can make it more complicated than that if you want, but really, it’s not. Fwiw, I have a tattoo of the Keeling Curve on my left forearm.
The broader context for this was that capitalist interests had been trying to reassure consumers of their goodness and rightness for decades – advertising really kicked into high gear in the late nineteenth century, with periodic surges after that as new technologies (colour printing, catalogues, radio, TV) came into effect. This is all part of the ongoing war of distraction. There’s plenty of good books about this, if you’re so inclined.
It wasn’t just individual companies selling their products, either. Trade associations would band together to sell “the system” – see Captains of Consciousness, Collision Course etc.
The specific context was that by 1970 the “eco-wave” was already a year or more old – there had been intimations of trouble (Rachel Carson) but the Torrey Canyon (1967) and Santa Barbara (Jan 1969) oil spills had upped the awareness. Industry needed to fight off regulation, and look good. Public relations was the key thing here…
What I think we can learn is this:
As human beings – we like to be lied too, especially if the truth would force us to be more citizen-y.
As “active citizens – “they lie, they lie, they lie.”
Academics might want to ponder… how they are more often than not just the sophisticated end of the PR industry.
What happened next:
A massive public relations effort started, kept going. The mystification machines churn out so much, the mere quantity is enough.
On this topic, you might like these other posts on All Our Yesterdays
November 2, 1972 – “Eco-pornography … Advertising owns Ecology”…
References
(as academic as possible, with DOIs if they exist.) hyperlinks.
You can see the chronological list of All Our Yesterdays “on this day” posts here.
What do you think? Does this pass the ‘so what?’ threshold? Have I got facts wrong? Interpretation wrong? Please do comment on this post, unless you are a denialist, obvs.
If you want to get involved, let me know.
If you want to invite me on your podcast, that would boost my ego and probably improve the currently pitiful hit-rate on this site (the two are not-unrelated).
Also on this day:
June 1, 1969 – “The Future is a Cruel Hoax” Commencement address – All Our Yesterdays
June 1, 1965 – Tom Lehrer warns “don’t drink the water and don’t breathe the air”
June 1, 1992 – “environmental extremists” want to shut down the United States, says President Bush
June 1, 2011 – Japanese office workers into short sleeves to save the planet