It has been called one of the greatest commercials ever made — the 1971 Chief Iron Eyes Cody anti-litter advertisement created by the Marsteller ad agency for Keep America Beautiful. As the camera pans across a littered landscape, Chief Iron Eyes Cody sheds a famous tear, a tear filled with sadness by humanity's cruel treatment of nature — indeed, people are littering even as he watches and weeps. In another version, Iron Eyes canoes through a river of pollution, peering across the water to a factory-cluttered shore, people are still littering, and he's still crying.
Better known as the "Crying Indian" ad, it, and the larger litter prevention campaign it was part of, was reportedly 
successful in recruiting an anti-litter workforce across the United States. According to the campaign's creators (and that's important to note), by the end of the 22-year campaign (and 12 years after the Crying Indian ad) local teams of volunteers had helped to reduce litter by as much as 88% in 38 states.
That's all worth talking about (we won't discuss the fact that Chief Iron Eyes wasn't really a Native American, he was actually Italian-American; and yes, the tear is fake) — but what's even more interesting is the research that the Crying Indian sparked. I was reminded about this while reading an article entitled "Supermarket Trolleys Make Us Behave Badly" in the Times Online. The article summarizes recent research suggesting that disordered, ugly environments inspire disorderly, ugly behavior.
The study picks up on the work of psychologist Robert Cialdini, author of Influence: the Psychology of Persuasion, and progenitor of what's often referred to as 'The Cialdini Effect' — in short, the behavior you witness others getting away with will influence you to join in. If you see a parking lot full of shopping carts, you're more likely to leave yours there too, according to Cialdini's influential theory.
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