ADVOCACY ADVERTISING
Gossage was a man of both passion and principle and his agency was responsible for some dramatically effective advertising for saving the Grand Canyon from damming, redwood forests from clearing, and the Caribbean island of Anguilla from being submerged under british rule, in addition to various fights on behalf of freedom of the press (described in detail in the next section) and antiwar causes.
When Sierra Club, whose handsome photo books Freeman & Gossage had been advertising, approached Gossage for help to block the damming of the Grand Canyon, he realized the trouble with conservation. He opined that people who were interested in good causes often felt guilty about not doing anything about them. Gossage gave people recourse. Instead of making them feel guilty, he helped them make a difference. The ad opposing damming of the Grand Canyon carried seven coupons addressed from the President to the Senators and due to the public opinion the bill for the two hydroelectric dams was defeated in the Congress. The membership of the Sierra Club increased from 30,000 to 50,000 in just six months. It was one of the greatest propaganda victories for Gossage.
Click on the image to see a larger version.
Another feather in his cap was his efforts for recognition for the tiny, long forgotten and isolated Caribbean island of Anguilla. With two ads (that cost a total of $10,000), one in New York Times and the other in the Herald Tribune in Europe, Gossage and his team won the de facto independence for Anguilla. Though Anguilla was not recognized as an independent country, its postage was given recognition. Despite Anguilla not being a member of the international postal union, letters could be mailed there after the ads generated considerable public opinion for the cause. Gossage designed their currency, stamps, letterheads, passports and even the flag. [For the complete story refer to chapter 18 of Is there any hope for advertising?(Rotzoll 1986)]
Click on the image to see a larger version.
Howard Gossage not only believed in the power of advertising, he showed it to us.According to him, agencies would soon witness public causes becoming their mainstay as opposed to it being considered as a mere extracurricular activity. Though advertising was becoming obsolescent as a marketing tool, he thought, its potential as a propaganda medium was largely unexplored (Gossage 1969). He believed advertising's future to be in propagation and cultivation of ideas and the medium lend itself perfectly to public service causes.