Classic Ads: Jean Jacket Firefighting

Let's face it...the entire 1970's was a crime against all that was visual, whether it was architecture, interior design, graphic design, or worst of all: fashion design. As such, there wasn't much boys my age had any desire to wear...with the exception of jean jackets! 

Whether it was the cowboy cred they imparted or the rare pleasure of wearing something that wasn't plaid, every guy I knew owned at least one jean jacket...with some guys owning several jean jackets of different colors. 

But wait...true story...my pals and I also used our snazzy jean jackets to fight fires in the wilds of northern Minnesota! With the TV show Emergency a big hit at the time (both a live action and animated version), we were anxious to get in on the fire fighting action ourselves and, living near grass fields and forests that routinely caught fire during dry summer days, we had that opportunity. Most of the time we'd be shooed away by justifiably irritated adult firefighters (some using rather colorful language as I recall), but sometimes we'd be able to stick to the margins of a grass fire and slap the flames with our trusty jean jackets without the adults noticing...fulfilling our dreams of firefighting glory (at least until our moms chewed us out for coming home with singed and smokey jackets).

So, with this youthful anecdote in mind, imagine my surprise when I came across this early 70's comic book ad, which featured some startling parallels to my own jean jacket heroism (click on the panels for a larger view).

Unlike my own foolhardy firefighting adventures, Tom and Danny Lee had parental approval to fight a raging forest fire with no discernable firefighting equipment or skills.

Wow...that's some amazing parenting on display there, isn't it?  Yet through all the reckless decision-making, Mike Lee still had the presence of mind to work a plug for Lee into his utterly insane plan.

See, this was the outcome my friends and I always imagined would happen: grateful authority figures thanking us with the promise of medals! In reality, young Tom and Danny Lee might have been placed into protective custody while their danger-loving dad was questioned by social services...but not here in the peculiar alternate reality of advertising.  Instead, a man and two boys put out a forest fire with only their crisp, clean jean jackets...miraculously unfazed by the flames and smoke!

"Yeah, dad...and you were pretty reckless back there. We were so scared we wet ourselves...and we're going to tell mom when we get home."

Comments

[Andy]

This is no lie -- in the year of the Bicentennial, I had red, white and blue star spangled bell bottom jeans!

[Hube]

LOL! I did a post on this ad back in January. Looks like we are of like mind on this one, Mark! :-)

BTW, Col. Steve Austin also made use of denim with his "Special Mission Outfit!"

[ShadowWing Tronix]

Was there nothing the Lee family could do with jeans wear?

[Comic Coverage]

Woah! Sorry, Hube! I never purposely repeat stuff others have done. I guess it's inevitable considering the number of comic blogs and the sheer lunacy of some of these ads.

[Z Ryan]

Jean jackets... uggghh. I was a kid in the 90's and remember jean jackets combined with backwards hats were cool even then.

I particularly remember the 1992 documentary "The War Room" about the Bill Clinton campaign... James Carville wearing a jean jacket and backwards cap. James Carville was not a young man in 1992...

[Hube]

No worries, Mark! As you said, it's inevitable -- especially since our tastes in comics and minutiae is so similar!

[Pat Curley]

True story. When I was 8 years old a couple friends of mine and I were in the woods and one of them revealed that he had a pack of firecrackers in his pocket. We wanted to light them off, but nobody had the nerve to light a fuse because we'd all been scolded not to play with fireworks.

So I got this brilliant idea. How about if we put a little pile of leaves together with the firecrackers in the middle, and then we light the pile of leaves....

Oh, man when those firecrackers started to go off, there were burning clumps of leaves flying everywhere. I ran out to the schoolgrounds where a couple of the older kids were playing ball and they helped us put it out, a couple of them using their sweatshirts the way the guys did in that ad.

[Mark Engblom]

Pat-

Gotta love those kid decision-making skills! I recall doing stuff similarly stupid...like dousing the ground with gas, lighting it, then slapping it out with....you guessed it...our jean jackets. We rationalized it as "practicing" for the real thing...but we were just jerky little firebugs (like most boys are). And, no....none of the grass fires we "helped" put out were started by us (thank God)!