Natural Resources and Environmentalism

"There must be a Hooker somewhere," Hooker Chemical Corp., TIME magazine (Jan. 19, 1968), p. 64.

"There are no simple solutions," Caterpillar, TIME magazine (April 17, 1978), p. 18).

In these two advertisements we can see how the growth of the environmental movement changed the way people thought about and depicted natural resource use and environmental issues. The 1968 Hooker Chemical Corporation advertisement from TIME depicts a sizzling porterhouse alongside a phosphorous mine. The ad brags that cows fed on feed grown in high phosphorous fertilizer grow bigger and need less feed. The chemical company has no qualms about associating food with fertilizer nor does it hide a big crane scooping out a giant mound of dirt. The advertisement aims to show how chemical/technological control of nature leads to a satisfying life for the consumer.

By 1978 this technocentric view of nature had been challenged by environmentalists. Companies involved in natural resource extraction had to be much more cautious and considerate about the way they depicted their relationship to the environment. In the Caterpillar advertisement, also from TIME, the image of a destructive machine plowing through the earth has been replaced with a scenic image of a man and woman chatting by a dam and reservoir. The actual product the company makes is nowhere to be seen. Instead Caterpillar is responding to environmentalists' concerns and trying to appear responsible. They understand that people are concerned with wildlife but want to remind the viewer that dams are providing energy to people. Rather than focus on resource extraction and construction, the advertisement says that Caterpillar is involved in "land conservation and water management". This advertisement shows a shift in attitudes towards corporations and environmental responsibility.

The image also employs traditional assumptions about gender to make its point. The environmentalist is a woman holding a charcoal drawing pad. Her gender apparently prohibits her from seeing the greater picture. She speaks colloquially and emotionally, ("That dam messed up the valley's wildlife.") while the man speaks technically and rationally ("That dam can generate power to light 30,000 homes.").