I still get a little bit startled when I see people smoking in the office on Mad Men. I know it was totally normal back then, but I just can’t quite wrap my head around it not being taboo. I feel the same way when I see these cigarette ads. Back before we knew cigarettes are quite so detrimental to your health, before it was bad to target tobacco products at teens and kids, and apparently before the women’s movement, these tobacco ads did their best to get smokers to ask for their brand.
1. Tipalet – “Blow in her face and she’ll follow you anywhere.” That’s just – I mean… there are so many things wrong with this.
2. Camels – “More Doctors Smoke Camels Than Any Other Cigarette.” Dentists, however, felt differently…
3. Viceroy – “As your dentist, I would recommend Viceroys.”
4. Lucky Strike – “Reach for a Lucky instead of a sweet.” This one was part of a series of ads that touted cigarettes to dieters. Lucky later had to change the wording of the advertisement to reflect dieting in general instead of sweets specifically after candy companies protested.
5. Lucky Strike – “Her singing coach advised a light smoke.” Back before celebrities wouldn’t be caught dead shilling for cigs, it was commonplace to see big names like Carole Lombard, John Wayne and even Ronald Reagan singing the praises of their “favorite” smokes. In Carole Lombard’s case, a story accompanying her ad explained that she was horrified about having to give up smoking when she accepted a singing role in a movie – until her voice coach told her that if she switched to Lucky Strike, she could keep smoking, because Lucky Strikes are so soothing and gentle on the throat. Sure, except for that whole cancer thing.
6. Chesterfield. Sometimes it’s not the slogan, but the ad itself that might make you do a double-take. Little kids buying their dad a carton of smokes for his birthday? Heartwarming!
7. Lucky Strike – “It’s Toasted.” That might not be so bad by itself, but it’s the accompanying explanation that went with the tagline: “Toasting removes dangerous irritants that cause throat irritation and coughing.” Yep, that’s all it takes – toasting.
8. Eve Cigarettes – “The first truly feminine cigarette – almost as pretty as you are.” Eve Cigarettes came with a band of flowers printed on the stick, because what self-respecting woman would be seen out and about without a cigarette that matched her outfit? They’re still produced today but you don’t see them around much.
9. Marlboro – “Before you scold me, mom, maybe you’d better light up a Marlboro,” and “Gee mommy, you sure enjoy your Marlboro.”
The gem targeted at dads above was part of the same campaign.
10. Mecca – “Where Was Moses When the Lights Went Out? Groping for a pack of Meccas.” Mecca cigarettes answers the age-old rhetorical question about Moses – yeah, Moses from the Bible – with a rather irreverent statement. Nice!
Do you remember any old cigarette ads that would never see the light of day in 2010?
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I remember the one for Pall Mall Gold 100′s. The seven minute cigarette. The ad told you to take a 7 minute break, not the five.
Virginia Slims were directed toward women too. Ad said that they were thin, not fat like the cigarettes men smoke.
I guess you can say that each brand directed its ads to a certain group to try to win over customers.
posted by Steve C on 3-12-2010 at 5:16 pm
Any of the old ads done by children, of course…
I personally miss Joe Camel, who (despite never making *me* want to smoke) was apparently both too kid-friendly and had a nose that looked like…well, a man’s goodies. Apparently.
posted by Ashley on 3-12-2010 at 6:05 pm
Ah! And I seem to remember some brand of ciggs giving the promise of trading cards for every pack or something.
posted by Ashley on 3-12-2010 at 6:06 pm
@Ashley, we used to collect the coupons that came with certain brands. I think you could save them up to get stuff… kind of like S&H green stamps. I was a kid, so we used them as play money. I didn’t smoke then though! Then later when I did smoke B&H had a similar thing and I did get some candle holders and stuff. But 12 years free of them now!
posted by Hyacinth on 3-12-2010 at 6:13 pm
Let us not forget the infamous Flintstones Winston cigarette ad. All sorts of things un-PC about that ad.
posted by Chuck Taylor on 3-12-2010 at 6:37 pm
How about Virginia Slims, also marketed for women, telling them “You’ve come a long way, baby”. I guess the thinking was with the women’s lib movement at the time, women getting their own cigarettes was significant.
posted by SteveR on 3-12-2010 at 6:49 pm
I bought a stack of Life magazine from 1967-1972 just for the heck of it.
I’m not making this up, almost every other page has an add for cigarettes and/or liquor.
None are all that shocking(like featuring kids or flat out lies)but they’re all pretty classy, featuring the Marlboro Man and Johnny Carson pitching booze.
posted by holly on 3-12-2010 at 6:51 pm
Wasn’t the “It’s toasted” ad used in the first season of Mad Men? Was that a real campaign?
posted by Tracie on 3-12-2010 at 7:22 pm
The Tareyton “I’d rather fight than switch!” ads with hot models sporting black eyes.
posted by Jaye on 3-12-2010 at 7:37 pm
@Hyacinth- Congratulations!
posted by Sara in Al on 3-12-2010 at 9:19 pm
how about the Doral ads…”Taste me, taste me, c’mon and taste me.”
posted by Lorb on 3-12-2010 at 9:26 pm
Preserved on DVD, there is an episode of the Ed Wynn Show guest starring the Three Stooges. The show was sponsored by Camels, and they did several plugs for the cigarettes that involved all the Stooges, Ed Wynn, and the Barker-Beauty-like model/actress.
posted by Mary on 3-12-2010 at 9:44 pm
@Tracie: That’s the first thing I thought of, too. And here, I thought it was an original slogan from the show…
posted by Adam on 3-12-2010 at 9:52 pm
I’m old enough to remember seeing that Tipalet ad in magazines! Any man, or woman, who blew smoke in my face would probably get slapped, but certainly not laid.
posted by Pam on 3-12-2010 at 10:49 pm
Really showing my age, but grew up with the followings jingles:
“Winston tastes good..(click, click) like a cigarette should!”
and the following duet between a man in a night club looking longingly at the cigarette girl: girl…”Cigars, cigarettes, Tiperillos?” Guy…”Her voice sounds wind through the willows.”
And before Joe Camel, real men enjoyed saying “I’d walk a mile for a Camel!” Fortunately I had a dad who said “I never saw a camel who’d walk a mile for me.” Needless to say, I never smoked, tobacco or other herbs.
recaptcha uncased Medicine
posted by Prism on 3-12-2010 at 11:31 pm
The “It’s Toasted” ad was a real campaign. I’m an Old Time Radio fan and Jack Benny was sponsored by Lucky Strike for a time. Their slogans included “It’s Toasted,” “Light Up a Lucky,” “Lucky Strike Means Fine Tobacco,” and “Be Happy – Go Lucky.”
posted by Bookworm on 3-13-2010 at 2:10 am
I think it’s odd you’re startled by an ad for a legal product.
posted by Tyk on 3-13-2010 at 7:19 am
cigarettes notbad okay.
posted by naveenchilakapati on 3-13-2010 at 7:48 am
Remember the last day cigarette ads cold be shown on tv? Almost every ad on tv was for cigarettes that day!!!
My dad was a Salems guy – he’d give us kids a dollars, write “Pack of Salems please” on the back of his business card, and send us to the local liquor/candy store to get him a pack.
posted by JFS in IL on 3-13-2010 at 8:47 am
In the 40′s Lucky Strike’s tag line was “So round, so firm, so fully packed – So free and easy on the draw”. They changed it to “Be Happy – Go Lucky” in the 50′s.
When I was a kid, I had a cork board full of “Come to Where the Flavor is, Come to Marlboro Country” color ads that I collected from the back of magazines. I would position them so the cigarette pack was covered by another ad.
I loved those cowboys.
posted by Sue on 3-13-2010 at 9:17 am
On the Beverly Hillbillies, Granny and Jed would smoke in commercials and Granny would say “Winston tastes good like a cigarette had oughta.”
posted by Timo on 3-13-2010 at 10:43 am
If she is startled to see people smoke in the office on mad men ,Then its a good thing she was not around when we actually did it . No one thought nothing of it back then .We smoked in offices, airplanes,hospitals ,schools (and that was the teachers) movies,bowling alleys ,I cant think of a place we didn’t smoke .
posted by ed cooper on 3-13-2010 at 9:40 pm
I have a framed ad of Lucille Ball hawking Phillip Morris in our home. It’s campy, and I love it! Since Phillip Morris was a sponsor of “I Love Lucy” and Lucky Strikes was their biggest competition, the word “lucky” wasn’t allowed to be used on the show. Ever.
Funny how what we took for granted at one time is strange to us when we haven’t seen it in a while…the times certainly have changed!
posted by shirleyfeeney on 3-13-2010 at 10:37 pm
The tap dancing cigarette packs were cool when I was a kid, but creepy, too. And I remember dad coming home from business trips with the little 3 pack cigarettes the airline GAVE AWAY!!
posted by chrisr on 3-14-2010 at 3:16 pm
I remember back in the ’80s, a girlfriend trying to get classmates to boycott a magazine because of a Joe Camel ad. It was a spring break ad, and included something about (literally) picking up women at the beach, and included the line, “The more she kicks and screams, the better.”
posted by Mark on 3-15-2010 at 1:25 pm
Actually found a copy of it (link on my name).
posted by Mark on 3-15-2010 at 1:31 pm
those were the good ol days, too bad the damn liberals have taken over
posted by j3 on 3-15-2010 at 7:34 pm
a lot of the people that promoted smoking were Role Models – go figure
Ko0L link @ my name
posted by GOODSTUFF on 3-22-2010 at 8:31 am
j3 … really? The good ol’ days? And was it really just the liberals that looked at all the science on the damage that smoking inflicts? I suppose it was only the liberals who gave a crap when someone such as their grandfather died in front of them at the age of 52 from lung cancer (he was a pack+ a day smoker … his parents luckily were conservatives so they let him enjoy that clean smokey flavor starting when he was 12 years old … bless them). Actually I’m going to assume you were joking, but to be honest you aren’t very funny either way. Yes indeed, let’s blame it all on the liberals … not the stupid cigarette companies whose greed is limitless.
posted by JosephP on 3-25-2010 at 5:11 pm
Hey Tyk … what does the fact that cigarettes are legal have to do with how shocking the ads are? The ads are horribly sexist, many at the time were racist, and they obviously appealed to a bunch of scumbags half the time. And no, it’s not just cigarette ads, there were a lot of products that had horribly offensive ads or at the very least ads of very poor taste. Cigarettes are legal, but that doesn’t mean telling you they will make you healthier, sexier, smarter, faster or a mustached cowpoke, makes the ads respectible even if the product is legal. ;-)
posted by JosephP on 3-25-2010 at 5:19 pm