McGruff the Crime Dog is an anthropomorphic animated bloodhound created by Dancer Fitzgerald Sample advertising executive Jack Keil (who also voiced the character) through the Ad Council and later the National Crime Prevention Council to increase crime awareness and personal safety in the United States. McGruff costumes are used by police outreach efforts, often with children. McGruff was created in 1979 and debuted in 1980 with a series of public service announcements educating citizens on personal security measures, such as locking doors and putting lights on timers, in order to reduce crime. His name was selected as part of a nationwide contest in July 1980.

McGruff proved to be a successful campaign with over $100 million in free air time donated in the first year reaching over 50% of adults. McGruff campaigns continued over the years to cover topics such as child abduction, robbery, anti-drug messages, and anti-bullying campaigns. From 1982 to 2012, a number of municipalities participated in the McGruff house program which offered temporary haven to children fearing immediate harm. McGruff has continued to be well-recognized, with nine out of ten people recognizing him by name in a 2007 survey.

After two years and $2.5 million, the Commission delivered its report, The Challenge of Crime in a Free Society, in February 1967 which influenced the Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968. The act gave $300 million to local police forces for more personnel and equipment. With the election of Richard Nixon in 1968, the attempts to control rising crime rates shifted from a social approach—the War on Poverty—to a tough on crime approach—the "war on crime". In addition to Nixon's criminal attempts (until his resignation in 1974), crime continued to rise from 363.5 crimes per 100,000 people in 1970 to 549.5 in 1979. The Carter administration took the focus away from crime and onto nuclear arms control and human rights. During Carter's presidency, crime continued to be a concern with the "kill for thrill murders" of 1979, when two men killed four people over eight days in Western Pennsylvania.

Creation

The Ad Council was first approached by the Department of Justice in 1977 to create a public campaign to engage the public in reducing crime. The FBI director recommended a campaign playing on fears to convince citizens to take personal safety steps, but the Ad Council rejected their proposal believing it would largely be ignored by an already frightened public. However, the Ad Council was still interested in a crime prevention campaign. Leo Perlis, a member of the Ad Council's Public Policy Committee, heard the proposal and liked the idea. He met with FBI Director Clarence M. Kelley, the head of the National Council on Crime and Delinquency, and a board member of the National Sheriffs' Association to form a coalition to direct the ad campaign.

The Ad Council gave the creative responsibilities to Dancer Fitzgerald Sample who they had previously worked with on the Keep America Beautiful campaign. On February 8, 1979, the Ad Council's board of directors held a meeting where they and public officials met to listen to data Dancer Fitzgerald Sample had compiled. Dancer Fitzgerald Sample had conducted focus groups in a number of cities to determine public perceptions on crime. The focus groups found that the public believed police should be the ones to prevent crime, but that they were unwilling to pay more in taxes to support more officers. They recommended a campaign which would "emphasize that individual actions can reduce crime" and "offer easily accessible opportunities for people to participate."

The task was given to Jack Keil, executive vice president and creative director of Dancer Fitzgerald Sample. Keil, thinking of Smokey Bear, came up with the idea of an animal mascot. After coming up with the slogan—"Take a bite out of crime"—he settled upon the idea of a dog. His first version was "a Snoopy look-alike wearing a Keystone Cop hat." His creative team however did not believe the dog would be taken seriously. In response, he gave the team a day to come up with a new version.

Five teams of two—a copywriter and an art director—produced proposals. The rejected proposals included a bulldog version of J. Edgar Hoover, a golden retriever, an "aggressive-looking deputy dog", and a "mongrel who became a wonder dog". The proposal Keil selected, which would go on to become McGruff, was a talking dog in a trench coat produced by Sherry Nemmers and Ray Krivascy who "was tired...he had seen the world, and he had epitomized all the detectives we had seen from Raymond Chandler to Dashiell Hammett and even Columbo."

While lauded by Keil, the U.S. Department of Justice was less enthused by the idea of a talking dog as the spokesman for crime prevention. By 1979, the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration (LEAA), created by President Johnson, was being criticized for its wastefulness prompting President Carter to shut down the program. The public safety outreach, part of the LEAA, was one of the few programs saved by Robert Diegelman who was tasked with dismantling the LEAA. Diegelman saw value in the public outreach effort and so sent monthly reports to his superiors in order to assuage their concerns. Despite this, Attorney General Benjamin Civiletti criticised the effort saying: "Why has the LEAA gotten into a campaign that is spending good money on a talking dog?" Civiletti ordered the campaign be shut down, but the advertisements had already been distributed to the media and were set to run.

In November 1979, the dog was introduced at a press conference in New York City with his slogan "Take a bite out of crime." Eight months later, in July 1980, a nationwide contest to name the dog was concluded. "McGruff the Crime Dog" was selected as the winner with "Shurlocked Homes" as the runner-up. The winning name was submitted by Officer John Isbell of the New Orleans Police Department.

Initial campaign

The first McGruff campaign featured three television and radio advertisements as well as billboards and posters. The campaign focused on raising awareness of the ability for citizens to help prevent crime through personal security steps, community awareness, and reporting crimes in progress.

The first television advertisement, "Stop a Crime", debuted in February 1980. The full 60-second advertisement features McGruff (voiced by Jack Keil) entering an unlocked house and telling the viewer, "All crime needs is a chance. Don't give it a chance" before giving tips on preventive measures. These measures included locking doors, turning on exterior lights, securing windows, asking neighbors to watch the house during long absences, and putting lights on timers.

In order to show the effectiveness of community watch, McGruff creator Sherry Nemmers selected actual Hartford resident Mimi Marth for the advertisement which now bears her name. "Mimi Marth" shows Marth and another watch member, Albert Bell<!--spelling unknown-->, responding to crimes in progress by reporting them to police on their radios. McGruff tells the viewer that "There's 126 of them, regular people like you and me, working against crime."

In addition to advertising and media campaigns, a costume was created for in-person appearances. Approximately 1,500 state and local law enforcement agencies use officers wearing a McGruff costume to educate children and others about crime prevention.

Addressing kidnapping, drugs, gun violence, and online fakes

The National Crime Prevention Council hired their first president and CEO, Jack Calhoun. Calhoun wanted to address the roots of crime saying, "At some point, I have to step out from my locked house and barred windows." Current plans are to introduce McGruff to a new generation and to have the Crime Dog become a watchdog to combat new criminal and 21st Century online crime. "A greater investment in community interventions will help take a bite out of violent crime," said Paul DelPonte, current head of the National Crime Prevention Council. "Strategies that increase public engagement in public safety are proven crime stoppers." DelPonte also has urged public health officials to use McGruff and crime prevention in health prevention programs.

thumb|NASCAR driver Joey Gase at [[Daytona International Speedway]]

NCPC and McGruff are currently working with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to combat the sale of fake products online. The campaign, "You're Smart. Buy Smart.", premiered the first television ads featuring McGruff in 3D animation in August 2022. The ads, filmed on the lot of Jim Henson Studios in Hollywood, are also in Spanish. Among the largest campaigns in the Crime Dog's lengthy career, it includes a partnership with NASCAR and featured a new car with driver Joey Gase.

In December 2021, the animated television show Family Guy featured McGruff and the National Crime Prevention Council on preventing kidnapping. The re-emergence of McGruff generated an outpouring of fan support.

In April 2022, the National Crime Prevention Council announced a partnership with McGruff the Crime Dog in creating Fentanyl Prevention Awareness Day scheduled for August 21, 2022. In October of the same year, the organization launched livesproject.org, a digital remembrance quilt to honor victims and to raise awareness of the problem.

McGruff Houses and trucks

The McGruff House program was a program that designated temporary safe havens for children in emergency situations. The program was first created in Utah in 1982 in response to the abduction and murder of five children by Arthur Gary Bishop. Owners of houses and apartments, after clearing a background check, would display a sign in their window with the image of McGruff. Children would be educated at school and community events to go to these houses when they felt threatened or in need of help.

The program operated under the motto "we'll call for help" and emphasized its use as a temporary haven.

The first McGruff truck was established in Utah in 1986. A utility company asked that its trucks be designated as "rolling McGruff Houses" and were approved. The program was extended to other companies and municipalities, and in 2006 there were over 170 participants.

In 2018, the Martin Agency brought back McGruff as part of GEICO Insurance's 'count on GEICO' campaign. The TV spot has an animated McGruff attempting to share his investigation evidence with several human colleagues. They respond by not taking him seriously and treating him like an actual dog with 'baby talk', leading to McGruff's throwing his paperwork in the air and storming out of the scene.

See also

  • National Night Out
  • Smokey Bear

References

Notes

General references

  • McGruff.org
  • National Crime Prevention Council
  • Ad Council