The Shocking True Story Behind The 'Crying Indian' Commercial

On its website, KAB says it was "formed in 1953 when a group of corporate and civic leaders met in New York City to bring the public and private sectors together to develop and promote a national cleanliness ethic." These "corporate and civic leaders" were members of wealthy packaging and beverage companies, including American Can Company, Owens-Illinois Glass Company, Coca-Cola, and Dixie Cup.

Unable to deny that the products they manufactured were contributing to litter and waste build-up across the country, they decided to tackle the problem by pointing fingers at people buying and using their products. Through its efforts, KAB wanted to make the public believe it was their responsibility to dispose of these products correctly, not the responsibility of companies to be more focused on sustainable practices. These packaging industry spokespeople also justified their stance by claiming it's what consumers wanted: They preferred the convenience of reusables over the hassle of refillables.

The first Earth Day was organized in 1970, a sign of a consciousness shift for the American public, especially among youth. KAB corporate interests watched fearfully as students organized demonstrations against soft drink companies in the weeks around Earth Day on April 22. These companies were so concerned about demonstrations that FBI agents were posted at plants and factories all over the country to monitor "radicals" during protests.

By the next Earth Day, KAB, in conjunction with the Ad Council, was ready with the Crying Indian commercial. They adopted a symbol of the counterculture, as well as the growing Native American resistance, to blend their messaging into the movement. The public, unaware of the interest groups financially backing the commercial, saw it as an effective public service announcement. It was so popular that TV stations wore through their video recordings of the commercial, often requesting additional copies from the Ad Council.

The Crying Indian commercial pointed to a larger messaging shift within KAB. Its noncorporate sponsors were pushing to change its focus from "litter" to "pollution." By the late '60s, pollution was a major problem in American cities. From pervasive smog to oil spills to rivers catching on fire, the decade ended on a dismal note. As activists began emphasizing the role corporations were playing in perpetuating pollution, KAB knew it needed to change its narrative.

The Ad Council hired a new agency, Marsteller, to design the Crying Indian campaign, hoping to tap into feelings of exasperation over the environmental crisis while continuing to divert attention away from industry. The vice president of Marsteller at the time told the Ad Council:

The problem... was the attitude and the thinking of individual Americans. They considered everyone else but themselves as polluters. Also, they never correlated pollution with litter... The "mind-set" of the public had to be overcome. The objective of the advertising, therefore, would be to show that polluters are people - no matter where they are, in industry or on a picnic.

With the Crying Indian commercial, KAB was able to drive home the idea that individuals are the source for the emerging environmental catastrophes. As the commercial ends, focusing in on the tear on the man's face, a narrator sadly announces: "People start pollution. People can stop it."

Adding to the campaign's artifice is the fact that the actor who played the Crying Indian was, in fact, an Italian American born Espera Oscar DeCorti. An established Hollywood actor who portrayed Native Americans in westerns, DeCorti adopted the name Iron Eyes Cody, wore a wig, and donned Native American costuming. 

DeCorti "passed" as Native American on and off screen, appearing in public as Iron Eyes Cody. The use of a non-Native actor shows that KAB did not care about investing in the truth; it was interested in using the visual symbol of a crying Native American man to protect its interests. Even the tear on DeCorti's cheek was fake. The effect was created with the help of glycerin.

The partnership between the Ad Council and KAB started in 1960. The Ad Council managed several successful public marketing campaigns in the decades leading up to this collaboration, and the advertising companies commissioned to work with KAB on their behalf developed an accusatory language to push the litter problem into public discourse.

"During this summer and fall, all media will participate in an accelerated campaign to help to curb the massive defacement of the nation by thoughtless and careless people," wrote David Beard in 1961, advertising director of Reynolds Metal Company and a KAB member. Over the next few years, Beard's comments escalated. As he told newspapers in 1963, "The litterbugs are on the loose, and we're counting on you to take up arms against them."

At the same time, the Ad Council created its first mascot, a young girl in a white dress named Susan Spotless. She first appeared in 1964, expressing shock over the refuse her parents discarded in public places, in essence pointing her finger at the outside world for contributing to the mess. Through this initiative, the Ad Council made littering "a family affair," using guilt to target audiences. "Daddy, you forgot - every litter bit hurts," Susan warned in one ad.

"Every litter bit hurts" became one of the most popular slogans of the era.

The efforts of KAB and the Ad Council paid off. While the public assumed responsibility for the waste piling up, the packaging industry watched as sales of disposable containers skyrocketed: 3% in 1960 jumped to 12% of total container sales in 1966. The rates continued to spike from there.

Framing the litter problem as disrespectful to the American landscape and calling those who don't clean up after themselves "litterbugs" allowed these industries to evade responsibility for the roles they played in the manufacture of disposable containers.

"There seemed to be mutual agreement," wrote campaign manager David Hart after a 1967 KAB meeting, "that our 'soft sell' used in previous years could now be replaced by a more emphatic approach to the problem by saying that those who litter are 'slobs.'"

KAB was careful to keep the bottles and cans produced by its sponsors out of Ad Council campaigns, which continued to use children to evoke emotional responses in viewers. "Litter is not pretty. Litter is not healthy. Litter is not clean. Litter is not American," one ad read.