THE "ROLE" MODEL

The Model

I think it was in the 70’s in my then position as director of marketing for our company, I wanted to create an ad to promote our line of fire fighters clothing. The brand name of the apparel was Chieftan and was manufactured in our plant in Scarborough. It was at that time the standard in firefighters protective wear.
Given the brand name Chieftan, we decided on an ad that would depict 3 fire chiefs, dressed in our fire fighting garments, and one Indian Chief in full tribal regalia. The catch line would be “3 out of 4 Chiefs prefer Chieftan”.
The studio creating the ad was told that the model for the Indian Chief must be a true native.
The ad was created and was as successful as we had hoped it would be.
Of interest was the fact that the model for the Indian Chief told us that he had never before modeled as an Indian.
While I don’t have a copy of the finished ad to show you, I do have a photograph of him, a head and shoulders shot, that was taken during the shooting, and which I kept. You will see that picture below.
You may recognize him because he is no longer an unknown!
He is an Oneida, born in Ohsweken on the Six Nations Reserve in Ontario, and is also the Acadamy award nominated actor for his role as Kicking Bird in the movie “Dances With Wolves.
There is also a more recent photo of him.
In case you still do not recognize him, his name is Graham Greene!
I am quite pleased to have the photograph of him in ceremonial dress!

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