Soul Asylum’s “Runaway Train” Video Helped Recover 25 Kids Over the Last 20+ Years
Milk cartons, MTV, and missing kids — the 1990s band that used a music video to find lost children
1990s Grunge band Soul Asylum’s “Runaway Train” music video was released in 1994. The producers interspersed images of missing children and information about how to help along with scenes to get across the message.
While Generation Xers like me may know the connection between missing kids, milk cartons, missing children, and MTV, you may not.
Hop aboard my time machine to travel back to the 1980s and beyond.
What It’s Like to Be a 1980s Kid — in a few paragraphs
Back in the 1980s, there were atomic fireballs and cinnamon toothpicks. There was playing Ms. PacMan and devouring a Personal Pan Pizza earned from the Book It! Pizza Hut summer reading program. There were neon color change shirts, the brand new Oregon Trail computer game, banana hair clips, and Banana Boat sunscreen.
I’d like to think most United States Gen Xers, including my subsidiary — the Oregon Trail Generation Gen Xers—are appropriately nostalgic for the above delicacies, fashion statements, and experiences.
We also navigated coming of age during the 1990’s alternative rock and grunge music scene.
I’m guessing the majority of us remember the startingly cute faces of missing children printed on our cafeteria milk cartons. If you watched MTV or listened to the radio, it’s also likely you know the song “Runaway Train” by alternative rock band Soul Asylum from days of yore.
Milk cartons, a grunge band’s vision, and advocacy for missing children. What’s the connection?
In the 1990s, we found ourselves post milk carton kids and pre-Amber alerts, which came on the scene in 1996 (the year I graduated high school).
During the interim between the fizzled missing kids milk carton campaign and the innovative Amber Alert system, the Minneapolis punk band Soul Asylum had an idea.
The Missing Kids Milk Campaign — Before Amber Alerts
We also had the AIDS crisis, Trickle Down Economics, “The War on Drugs,” and “Milk Carton Kids.”
In my elementary school cafeteria, printed on miniature cartons of almost impossible-to-open homogenized milk, in the mid-1980s, were the horrifying (to me) images of missing children.
Unbeknownst to child-me, after a couple of high-profile missing kids cases, images of missing kids were printed on pizza boxes, milk cartons, and grocery bags.
What I was acutely aware of though was that I’d be reading about another missing child while eating school lunch.
We could all be one of those missing children.
That’s how my pre-teen mind ticked. Were the missing kids being tortured as we stared at them on milk cartons? Which one of us would be snatched and tortured, eventually printed on a milk carton, likely to never be found?
In the late 1980s, famous pediatrician Dr. Spock expressed his opinion the missing kids milk carton campaign had an adverse impact on school children who imagined themselves being abducted.
For this reason, the United States missing kids milk campaign lasted only from approximately 1984 through the late 1980s.
Besides children being at risk of being traumatized by their likeness on milk cartons, the industry was going from cardboard to plastic cartons, which made printing images more difficult. There was also criticism that BIPOC children were underrepresented.
When milk quit advertising missing kids on milk cartons, I’m sure a bunch of us empathetic, easily scared kids were relieved.
In the 1990s, we found ourselves post milk carton kids and pre-Amber alerts, which came on the scene in 1996 (the year I graduated high school).
During the interim between the fizzled missing kids milk carton campaign and the innovative Amber Alert system, the Minneapolis punk band Soul Asylum had an idea.
The lead singer for Soul Asylum had a depressive episode that resulted in his switch from electric to acoustic guitar and his writing of “Runaway Train.” The song refers to his personal struggle with despair and depression.
“Runaway Train” from the platinum album Grave Dancers Union reached #5 on the Billboard Top 100. It won a Grammy in 1994 for the best rock song.
The music video for “Runaway Train” helped find 25 of the 36 featured missing children.
What’s MTV Got to Do With It? (Remember that Tina Turner song about LOVE?)
While the missing kids milk carton campaign was phased out in the late 1980s, from their inaugural year in 1981 through the 1990s, MTV had built a huge media presence and social impact.
Still sensitive and blissfully unaware of the missing children featured on the MTV video, Soul Asylum provided my mid-high (9th and 10th grade) morning soundtrack.
While showering, I belted along with the band,
“Call you up in the middle of the night Like a firefly without a light You were there like a blowtorch burning I was a key that could use a little turning” — David Pirner
As a generally angsty teenager without access to MTV, I related to the song in Pirner’s original intent. When, in 2020, I stumbled on the original video and the 25th-anniversary remake, I found myself riveted while tears streamed down my face.
MTV seemed to be the appropriate platform to share the “Runaway Train” video. It’s had way more staying power than the missing kids milk campaign — perhaps because a person has agency over watching it — or not. While elementary kids daily came face to face with images of missing kids, they or their parents could — and can — choose whether or not to watch the footage.
“Runaway Train” is a powerful example of artists who make a strong social impact.
