In the spring of 1947, the Hogg Foundation launched the “Pierre the Pelican” initiative in Louisiana and Texas. A mental health mascot of sorts, Pierre the Pelican appeared in a series of educational pamphlets provided to hundreds of young couples who were expecting their first child. The campaign responded to the national demographic increase in marriage and childbirth – known more colloquially as the “baby boom” – which began just after World War II and continued into the early 1960s.