The Cordova daily times., 1923-03-19
ADVERTISING THE NATIONAL PARKS

torial zoo for the purpose. This is to be thu
 outstanding feature of the campaign of 192: to sell to the American people the great play
 grounds of the West. Confessedly, no utili
 tarian purpose is served by trademark fo national park, as it is for instance, in tn
 case of brand for merchandise. But severa
 of the transcontinental railroads have demon
 strated in recent years how an identificatio,
 mark may be made to stand for definit ideal in travel and vacationing and, quit
 logically, the Government is making ready t' fall into line
 It might almost be said that Uncle San is coming in by the back door in this matte of trade-marking separate forms of westerr sight seeing. The trademark idea, as it i: to be developed in order to individualize tho
 several national parks, is but an elaboration
 of the scheme of windshield advertising tha has been finding itself this past couple o years To that extent the basic idea is no Inew. But here we are to have a studied effor to turn to account what has been heretofore a mere manifestation of the instinct of thu average individual to "collect' souvenirs a hobby that has been harnessed, these two seasons past, to encourage interpark or park Ito-park motor travel.
 To every resident of western city there has become familiar the sight of automobiles bedecked with the colored windshield stickerS that betoken in each instance visit to national park As many as eleven differen ,stickers have been counted on one car, the array leaving the driver only enough space to see the road This idea of park sticker< is an adaptation, if you please of the tradition al art of hotel labels, and the motorist wh( Iemerges from a round of the parks with his car bespattered with the emblems has some thing of the same pride as the tourist wht comes home from the Orient or from Europe with suit cases obscured by brave array O. hotel badges that incidentally perform { valuable advertising service at very modes
 cost n~r~-r,"~~~= t,~..
 During this past season more than 18,00( cars left Yellowstone Park Haunting the stickers-portable posters these little litho graphs became in very truth-and at some o the parks the "circulation' was even larger Indeed. the demand was so heavy at some parks that the supply of stickers was ex Ihausted long before the end of the season 'Given such demonstration of the possibilities of national aid, it would be strange indeed ii the authorities did not arouse to a trade marking ambition in earnest. That is precise fly what has come to pass Titles, all ending II "National Parl' may become confusing 1T the public mind for all the distinguishing element supplied by geographical prefix But with unique picture symbolic of eacl |plavground will have a convenient clue to its individuality.
 Hannv has been the choice, too, of wild an finals as the mascots of the national parks. Tc be sure, there is scarcely an animal portrayed lin the trademarks that Is not to be found not
 alone in one but in several of the parks [But effort has been made to select for eacl bark the exponent of wild life-as for example the mountain sheep of Rocky Mountain Ma tion:l Park-that Is most consistently em blematic of the particular playground. The1 Etoo, the recruiting of a western menagerlt links up in appropriate association all the various park marks just as, in ordinary mark
 etng processes, series of sympathetic brands is employed for ''family" of related prod
 ucts.
 The current evolution of the windshield sticker designs into full-fledged trade marks
 for the national parks is Uncle Sam's copy
 contribution for 1923 to the private advertisers
 throughout the West who predicate then
 campaigns on the national parks, as in th'
 case of the railroads, or, as in the case o hotels, etc., pin faith to the publicity for al individual park But Uncle Sam, himself
 more's the pity, is not going to do any more
 advertsing in 1923 than in recent years Fms | is the consequence of the policy of rlgl(