“Doing Great Things?”
Dow Chemical, 1960s-1980s
[…] In the mid-1980s, the Dow Chemical Co. began an upbeat advertising campaign with the theme, “Dow Lets You Do Great Things,” featuring a catchy tune and optimistic young graduates eager to join Dow’s business. The $50 million-plus PR campaign was designed to fix some bad corporate optics — including the likes of napalm, Agent Orange, and dioxin pollution that had plagued the company from the mid-1960s through the early 1980s. This story reviews that history, the college protests & clashes with Dow recruiters over napalm & the Vietnam War, the company’s environmental troubles, battles with EPA, a Jane Fonda controversy, and more — also covering the company’s more recent advertising campaigns, its environmental record, and worker/community safety issues […]