Actually, the Smokey ads are still going strong, despite the fact that Smokey is getting a little long in the razor-sharp tooth.

The year 2009 marked Smokey Bear's (the United States Forest Service is adamant that there's no "the" in his name) 65th birthday.

He got his start in a poster campaign that launched on Aug. 9, 1944. However the slogan depicted in this first poster was "Care will prevent 9 out of 10 forest fires;" Smokey's iconic "Remember... only YOU can prevent forest fires" motto didn't appear until 1947.

The very first TV ad featuring Smokey aired in 1968 and also featured characters from Disney's beloved "Bambi" film. While this seems a huge coup for the folks at the United States Forest Service, and it was, it wasn't a huge stretch for them. Months before the introduction of Smokey, Disney loaned its Bambi characters to the USFS for a fire-prevention poster campaign. It was the success of these posters that led the government to settle on an animal for its mascot (Disney only granted them the use of Bambi for a year).

As for the last Smokey ad, again the USFS is still making use of Smokey for its fire-prevention campaign efforts - the slogan is now "Only you can prevent wildfires" to take into account ones that occur outside actual forested areas.

Indeed they rolled out a new campaign last July to coincide with Smokey's big six-five. He's now computer-animated instead of hand-drawn, and he's now followed by the very youth-skewed "Get your Smokey on" tagline, but he's the same old Smokey and his message hasn't changed a bit.

"Smokey Bear is the nation's symbol for wildfire prevention and his important message has been communicated to generations of Americans during the past 65 years," said Helene Cleveland, fire-prevention program manager for the Forestry Service. "Smokey's enduring message is as critical today as it was when he was introduced in 1944 and I am confident that our new PSAs will continue to raise awareness about wildfire prevention issues."