Perhaps her last is actually 'de Corti'. (Iron Eyes Cody was born Espera Oscar de Corti.)
Perhaps her last is actually 'de Corti'. (Iron Eyes Cody was born Espera Oscar de Corti.)
Keep America Beautiful’s actions have been criticized as greenwashing. The organization’s narrow focus on littering and recycling diverts responsibility away from corporations and industries.
Despite self-identifying as having Native American ancestry with the stage name of Iron Eyes Cody, Espera Oscar DeCorti was of Italian descent. This sparked accusations of cultural appropriation and racial stereotyping. In February 2023, the Keep America Beautiful organization transferred ownership of the ad’s copyright to the National Congress of American Indians, who intend to restrict use of the ad to only historical purposes.
Heather Rogers, creator of the 2005 documentary film Gone Tomorrow. The Hidden Life of Garbage and book of the same name, classifies Keep America Beautiful as one of the first greenwashing corporate fronts. She asserts that the group was created in response to Vermont’s 1953 attempt to legislate a mandatory deposit to be paid at point of purchase on disposable beverage containers and banning the sale of beer in non-refillable bottles.