Old Cigarette Ads: Doctors, Nurses, And Rock Hudson Say It's Good For You
Man, cigarettes were awesome in the past, if these old ads collected by Stanford University are to be believed. They calmed your nerves so you'd stop humming nervously! They soothed your throat! They made you a movie star and helped you capture animals on your big game hunt! We don't know what tobacco was made of before the mid-80s, but no wonder everyone smoked.
Or maybe it was just ridiculous advertising. Check out Stanford's full collection for more stunners like the ones below.
"Not a Cough in a Carload" [Stanford University via WeirdNewsFiles via Neatorama]
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Comments:
aw, no Joe Camel ads?
i remember those from when i was a kid, and i remember when joe went bye-bye... i think my dad told me that Joe died of cancer or something.
My dad has smoked Camels for thirty years, and now I know why! He just didn't want to hum and smoking is a perfectly reasonable substitute.
Try this on for size. Here's a link to an old Flinstones comercial for Winston.
+ Watch video
Winston tastes good like a cigerette should
@dougp26364: My lord, and the cigarette companies tried to claim that they never marketed to kids. Wow.
@humphrmi: Actually if I remember correctly, the Flintstones were for adults when they originally aired. That was the target demographic.
@Kuonji:
Sure, just like the Simpson's and King of the Hill, Bevis and Butthead, and Family Guy. But I bet they new a lot of kids were watching anyway.
Ha. My grandma went to Jr. High School with Rock Hudson. I should ask her what he smoked back then :-)
Mad men!
ahh.. a glimpse of the world BEFORE it got all PC, and where people could enjoy something...
heh, I quit smoking in January and I sure would love a smoke now.. maybe I will start humming
They're toasted!
Ahhhh, now I'm in flavor country.
My City has a smoking Ban. Life if good.
That's old school baby!
@Kuonji: Their primary advertising market was adults, however it's notable that the Flintstones was the first prime time animated series, meaning that it's time slot was targeted for the time right before kids went to bed.
This is one reason I enjoy listening to classic radio - sometimes, they'll broadcast the original commercials as well. Some of those ads are hilarious.
"Ha. My grandma went to Jr. High School with Rock Hudson. I should ask her what he smoked back then :-) "@rockergal: I donno what he smoked back then, but he was a polesmoker later in life!
@slopirate: Uh, pole.
Look, someone was going to type it. I'm leaving soon anyway, might as well have been me.
My doctor also recommends a glass of whiskey before I drive to calm my jittery nerves.
They need to go further back with the ads showing all of the health benefits of smoking. Cigarette companies truly are evil. People didn't know better back then, now they do. No excuses.
I think I'm going to start my smoking addiction now. These jangled nerves are killing me!
Heh...Here's a good brand hawked by good ole Ronnie Raygun. A co-worker has the nickname "Chesterfield" because he smokes like a chimney and his name rhymes with it.
When did the harmful effects of smoking start to show. When did people really know it was bad for you? Was it before or after these ads. I've never really known.
just be careful when they put in a drinking ban, no yelling in public ban, no high-fat food ban, you get the idea.
dill
ex-smoker
@RckPngn:
If you go back to when Jamestown was settled and they had to grow tobacco as an export to survive, I think you'll find that the king of England knew then it was a bad weed to inhale.
@MayorBee is getting what plants crave: Oh, what a lovely "Christmas-card carton!" How can I *not* give my loved ones Chesterfield brand cancer sticks?
@MayorBee is getting what plants crave:
I love the Christmas carton. I have listened to some old Jack Benny radio shows and they have some songs from Lucky Strike that go along with Jingle Bells and tout how giving the Christmas carton shows you care.
@RckPngn: Some doctors realised at the start of the 20th century (probably earlier) that smoking was bad for you, but due to lobbying, peer pressure, money for advocacy...the clever doctors were outnumbered by lots of advertising, such as we see listed in this thread.
Things got really bad when everyone was prescribed a cigarette to fix their emotional state, and even WW1/WW2 didn't help with the US Army giving hugely subsidised smokes to soldiers as a field distraction. All those soldiers came home already addicted.
@mellisn:
Oh yea. Except I would support the drinking ban and noise in public ban.
That high-fat food ban would get me pissed. I gotta have my high-fat.
There had been indications throughout the 40s, but the ad-filled newspapers never reported on them. Then, by 1954, the evidence was overwhelming. And THAT's when the tobacco industry went on a full frontal attack on science, shouting "not proven," "more study needed," promoting bogus "experts," etc., buying off legislators and journalists, forcing mags that carried their ads to obscure the issue, even bribing the American Medical Assoc(!)
Millions died because of their efforts, which helped minimize the information on smoking and health for 40 years.
@Moosehawk: Xanax is way better than smokes for nerves. And so cheap if you have health insurance! I think I'll have one now...
I can't wait to start smoking again, the day I retire, hopefully, if they're still legal, if not, then I'll just grow my own.
Yep, I collect old magazines and the ads are classic...and not just for cigarettes. It is pretty interesting to see how advertising has changed over the years.
I have a copy of the old Abbot & Costello "Who's on First?" routine broadcast from radio. The show was sponsored by Camel and had the jingle "C-A-M-E-L... S! That's C for Comedy, A for Abbot, E for Ennis, M for Maxwell, and L for Lou Costello..." And they also ran a commercial that said, "More doctors smoke Camel than any other brand."
Really puts today's advertising into perspective.
@RckPngn: My great-great-aunt was from Ireland and was a battlefield nurse during WWI (she went when she was only 15.) She could see the difference between the lungs of smokers and nonsmokers during surgeries, and always campaigned against cigarettes within the family, even in the 30s and 40s when it was widely believed to be safe and even salutory. She was very happy when the science started to support her.
wow a nice $2.00 Christmas gift...if they even cost that much then, they were $3.00 a carton when I started smoking in 1973
frankly yes, I would rather have someone smoking around me than humming, that would drive me insane, and would show that humming is definitely more harmful to your health
@rockergal: "PC" being the politically correct term for "not acting like a reckless bunch of assholes"?
@zeitguess: That's why tobacco companies target kids. Adults have better judgment. Teenagers are positive they won't get addicted, because they're special little individual snowflakes who know everything. By they time they figure out different, they're hooked.
I wonder if the new "Sweet Surprise" High Fructose Corn Syrup ad campaign will be seen in the same light 50 years from now. Their ad campaign is basically "HFCS is super-awesome and doesn't cause obesity (see note 1) and everyone who disagrees is an ignorant moron."
Note (1): Based on studies sponsored by the HFCS industry, HFCS doesn't cause obesity when used in moderation. Please ignore the other studies which disagree.
God I want a cigarette now. Thanks for that.