The Ad Man Who Helped Create Earth Day. As Brower friend and associate Tom Turner recalls, "We repaired to an office on the ground floor of an old firehouse in San Francisco, downstairs from ad man Howard Gossage, who had conspired with Dave to produce the newspaper ads largely credited with defeating the Grand Canyon dams we settled on the name Friends of the Earth." And there's a little more to that story. Howard Gossage created the name. As Sally Kemp Gossage recalls, "David was sitting there, not knowing what to call it and Howard asked, 'what does it do?' David answered, 'it heals the earth." And Howard said, 'call it Friends of the Earth.'" And they did. And that's how and where Earth Day and the modern environmental movement began. On April 22, many will celebrate Earth Day. Those in advertising and marketing might be interested to know that the sequence of events that ended up with David Brower creating Earth Day and Friends of the Earth began with an ad and an iconoclastic San Francisco ad man - Howard Gossage. An ad and an ad man? Yep. Here's the story. In 1966, David Brower was running the Sierra Club in San Francisco. At the time, they mixed environmental concerns with selling lovely books of nature photography by Ansel Adams. They had a problem – the Federal government was looking to flood the Grand Canyon (no kidding) with something called the Glen Canyon Dam. It was outrageous, but they were going to do it. Brower also had Howard Gossage, "The Socrates of San Francisco," an outrageous advertising man who was running his revolutionary ad agency out of a renovated San Francisco Fire House. Gossage alternated between ads for clients like Irish Whiskey and Rover Motor Cars, and being a driving force behind things like Ramparts Magazine and the thinking of Marshall McLuhan. Brower wanted to run an ad to stop the Dam. His idea was "An Open Letter to Stewart Udall" Gossage thought otherwise. His point, recalled by then partner Jerry Mander was this. "You can't just make people feel bad, you have to give them an opportunity to do something." This thought was the beginning of modern media-driven activism. As an alternative, Gossage's agency created an ad headlined, "NOW ONLY YOU CAN SAVE GRAND CANYON FROM BEING FLOODED... FOR PROFIT" The ad included seven coupons. You could send them to the Secretary of the Interior, the President, your Congressman, both your State Senators, and even the head of the Congressional Committee that was considering flooding the Grand Canyon for a dam. Response was electric – coupons poured in, phones rang, newspapers ran stories, and people got involved. There was one additional response the very next day - from the Internal Revenue Service. They decided that since this ad was political lobbying, they were taking away the Sierra Club's tax-exempt status. Gossage thought that this was hilariously good news, amplifying the cause and leveraging the general dislike of the IRS. He was right. Support for the Sierra Club grew – so did the publicity. The bill was defeated the next week - it never even got to the floor. Meanwhile, Sierra Club membership doubled – from 39,000 to 78,000 It was a smashing victory, one that Brower remembered as a key moment in the environmental movement. But the media success and the unseemly publicity that seemed to go with it also started the split between Brower and The Sierra Club - though they now look back at the incident with fondness – even celebrating the anniversary of the event. But at the time, they were not sure they really wanted all of this publicity and controversey. But, David Brower was certain that this was exactly what he wanted. So was Howard Gossage. In Brower's resignation speech to the Sierra Club, he announced the founding of a new organization. He then proceeded to walk down the street to his new offices – in Howard Gossage's Fire House. As Brower friend and associate Tom Turner recalls, "We repaired to an office on the ground floor of an old firehouse in San Francisco, downstairs from ad man Howard Gossage, who had conspired with Dave to produce the newspaper ads largely credited with defeating the Grand Canyon dams… we settled on the name Friends of the Earth." And that's how and where Earth Day and the modern environmental movement began. If not for Gossage's support – from initial communication inspiration to initial office space, the Grand Canyon might be flooded and on April 22 we could celebrate Week After Tax Day. Attached/Enclosed - jpg files of: Original Grand Canyon ad, Howard Gossage, Gossage and Fire House, Gossage in pilot garb - MP3 files of Gossage speech on ad from 60s. eps of follow-up Grand Canyon ad w. David Ogilvy comments. GossageCanyon1.jpg This was the original ad by Howard Gossage and Jerry Mander - it featured seven coupons. As a test, this ad was part of a split run with Mander's "Open Letter" approach. There was no contest - this ad connected with people and the media. GossageBook.jpg The Book of Gossage with introduction by Jeff Goodby. Available through The Copy Workshop and on www.adbuzz.com GossageFire.jpg Howard Gossage "The Socrates of San Francisco," in front of his offices - a renovated San Francisco Fire House at 451 Pacific. Gossage1.jpg classic head shot. Gossage2.jpg Here is Howard posing for a Rover Motor Cars ad. Long before seat belts were in most cars, Gossage felt they should be promoted. In typical Gossage fashion, he thought that part of the challenge was making it desireable. For this ad, his headline was “How to get your husband to fasten his Rover 2000 Safety harness. Tell him it’s a Sam Browne belt and he looks like a World War I aviator.” GrandCanyon2.jpg When one Interior Department official noted that flooding the Grand Canyon would provide visitors with a closer view of some parts of the Grand Canyon walls, Gossage and partner Jerry Manders attacked this "spin," with this ad headlined "Should we also flood the Sistine Chapes so tourists can get nearer the ceiling?" In his book, Ogilvy on Advertising, David Ogilvy noted, "Howard Gossage, the most articulate rebel in the advertising business, held that advertising was too valuable an instrument to waste on commercial products. He believed that it justified its existence only when it was used for social purposes. On of his advertisements… opposing a hydroelectric project in Grand Canyon, pulled 3000 applications for membership… and the hydroelectric project was scrapped." Sierra 1, Sierra 1b, and Sierra 2 mp3 Sound files of a speech Howard Gossage gave in Berlin in 1968