With all the fire raging out in California, it is odd that his birthday, August 9th, was so overlooked, but is it since the WaPo and SF Gate are now blaming him for them in what is the oddest turn of events yet.  Smokey was a U.S. Forest Service creation from Munich-born Albert Staehle a popular illustrator in the  1930s into the mid-1960s. Another of his posters is the  1939 New York World’s Fair.   He , died of a stroke in april 1974 in North Miami, Florida; he was 74 years old.

It is the longest-running public service advertising campaign in United States history, and uses Smokey Bear, the Forest Warden,  to educate the public about the dangers of human carelessness in causing wildfires.

A campaign featuring Smokey and the slogan “Smokey Says – Care Will Prevent 9 out of 10 Forest Fires” began in 1944. The original debut ad is our header shot. His later slogan, “Remember… Only YOU Can Prevent Forest Fires” was created in 1947 and was associated with Smokey Bear for more than five decades.

Smokey’s Chart

Smokey is a bucket with a Moon handle on the seventh house cusp.  He has no oppositions including the rim to his bowl.  He has the other luminary, the Sun, unaspected, making the two of them quite strong in his chart, thus making his image and name equal to his message.  That works well for him.

His map is filled to the brim in the eleventh house of publicity, and a little less so in the tenth house with his Venus on the cusp of both — Smokey is well liked and the Pluto conjunct his Midheaven, his message is potent.  His part of fortune, his message, is at 07 Cancer on the ninth house cusp “two fairies on a moonlight night” with the keyword of Ascendancy and invoking the magic of selfhood rising above those that would tarnish his message.  Rather apropos in lieu of this WaPo article, for no   what it claims, Smokey’s message is about  careless fires, not planned, perhaps they and others who picked up the story ought to revisit that message.