32. An Idea That Aged Like Garbage
Needless to say, Humble Oil’s non-humble boast that it produced enough energy to melt seven million tons of glaciers every day did not age well. A few decades later on down the road, scientists began sounding the alarm about the dangers of global warming – a growing menace caused in large part by fossil fuels such as those produced by Humble Oil.
Back in 1962, the ad’s copywriters thought they had come up with a clever idea, and were blissfully unaware of that what the future would bring. They certainly had not anticipated that melting glaciers would become a major symbol of the risks of global warming.