Monday, February 26, 2007

Champion Paper: Protecting You From the Tyrannical Future Government (Newsweek, 1979)

I came across a rather bizarre ad recently in the October 15, 1979 edition of Newsweek. It's for a company called Champion which now looks to be a part of the International Paper Company.

The ad is utterly perplexing.

"In the future, incredibly expensive technology could enable a few people to live for 200 years or more. Who will be chosen? And, who will choose?"

Why would a paper company take out such a bizarre ad? Because, "...we are a forest products company, and plant seeds that take up to 50 years to become mature trees, Champion International has to think a lot about the future."

2 comments:

Sally said...

Champion Paper Company was in Canton, North Carolina, in the mountains. After an employee buy-out, it became the Blue Ridge Paper Company. A long class action suit against it for polluting the watershed was recently settled. In the early 1990s at UNC I taught a student who had a Champion Paper scholarship. She ended up writing a research paper that critiqued the company for its bad practices. She cared about her scholarship, but she cared about her home community more.

Matt Novak said...

Thanks for the background info.