After years of being criticized by enviros, the lumber industry is hoping to give its image a boost by spending $45 million on a three-year campaign to promote wood to consumers, along the lines of the dairy industry’s highly successful milk-moustache ad campaign. Working under the umbrella of the Wood Promotion Network, 85 forestry producers in the U.S. and Canada aim to improve wood’s public reputation, which they believe has been unfairly maligned by environmentalists critical of clear-cutting and other forestry practices. The campaign will get rolling in January with a series of TV and print ads and media interviews. “We have to hit that emotional chord. It’s been used against us so often,” said Susan Rogers, a public affairs specialist working on the campaign.
