Photo Proof: the Tasteless 1970S Merch That Spawned the 'Nuke the Whales' Slogan

Catch up with Photo Proof: the Tasteless 1970S Merch That Spawned the 'Nuke the Whales' Slogan. Our latest report covers the primary developments in full detail.

The genius, and malice, of the slogan relied on combining two distinct socio-political crusades into an impossible hybrid.

By 1975, the environmental collective Greenpeace had launched its first high-seas direct actions against Soviet whaling fleets in the Pacific. Zodiac inflatables dodging harpoon cannons made international headlines. Within months, green-and-white "Save the Whales" bumper stickers and canvas tote bags became omnipresent symbols of conscientious counterculture living.

Concurrently, the anti-nuclear movement was cresting. The construction of commercial atomic reactors across the United States provoked massive civil disobedience, crystalized by the Clamshell Alliance at Seabrook Station in 1977 and the catastrophic meltdown at Three Mile Island in March 1979. Millions of vehicles carried circular yellow stickers featuring the smiling red sun alongside the words: "Nuclear Power? No Thanks."

"Nuke the Whales" collided these two pious slogans into a single, aggressive non sequitur. It wasn't an endorsement of nuclear testing, nor was it a coordinated policy proposal from commercial whalers. It was pure anti-earnestness, designed specifically to produce visible outrage in college towns and coastal enclaves.