The Boy Scouts Wants Your Son to Become a Hipster

We hope these youngsters have collected their Movember pledges. That’s some impressive facial hair.

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Boy Scouts of America / Ogilvy / AdsOfTheWorld.com

The Falconer would be proud. A new advertising campaign from the Boy Scouts of America features four bearded boys who appear to have gotten lost in the woods, aged 25 years, shunned all modern grooming habits, and still emerged to tell the tale. Or perhaps they all just moved to Williamsburg?

We jest. In reality, the ads are an effort to promote the Boy Scouts’ new initiative to “be one with the wild.” While the bushy kiddies are indeed endearing, with their beaming smiles and radiant enthusiasm, shouldn’t they simply explore the wild, not live among it? It’s a known fact that young boys look up to their fathers, but we think it best that they wait till nature kicks in to covet facial hair.

(PHOTOS: Beards at Berlin Fashion Week)

Advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather’s Atlanta office drew up the ads, which seems to toss aside all prior notions that Boy Scouts should be neatly pressed and clean-shaven. The creative director on the project, Dave Galligos, also worked on a series of rather, er, open-minded ads for Durex condoms. Perhaps the Boy Scouts are looking to attract a more adventurous bunch? Though it seems their numbers are in no peril: more than 2.7 million boys between the ages of 7 and 21 were part of the Irving, Tex.-based organization as of 2010.

But who are we to judge? Maybe NewsFeed’s just jealous of these boys’ lush forests growing from their chins. And the opportunities certainly abound for the unshaven: perhaps they’re just trying to inspire a little competitive spirit in the young Scouts.

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