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."

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2 comments:

  1. SallyMarch 1, 2007 at 7:14 AM

    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.

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  2. Matt NovakMarch 1, 2007 at 2:24 PM

    Thanks for the background info.

    ReplyDelete

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