20 Outrageous Brainwashing Cigarette Ads
Posted by Mark Jul 27th 2009, 14:52Today, it's common knowledge that cigarettes are bad for your health, but as these vintage ads show, it used to be common for tobacco ads to resort to manipulation, half-truths, peer pressure and other tactics to brainwash people into believing that cigarettes were OK.
1. Baby's Advice:
I don't know which is more disturbing: the baby's articulateness or his appalling lack of medical insight.
2. Smoking Is Like Cheese:
This bizarre ad paints a flimsy parallel between cigarettes and...cheese? If cheese is good for you, apparently, then so much smoking.
3. Father's Day:
This year, give the gift of death.
4. Subliminal Pornography?
Oh my...
5. Smoke Like a Chimney? Who Cares!
...Because a clean-tasting mouth is all you need to worry about.
6. Got a Cold? Smoke This!
"Change to Spuds whenever: your throat is dry--parched, you have a cold or sore throat, your voice is hoarse, you develop smoker's cough, your taste is thick in the morning."There's obviously nothing wrong with you; there's something wrong with your cigarette.
7. Cigarettes Make You Skinny:
Corpses do tend to lose weight quickly.
8. Licorice-Flavored Cigarette Smoke:
This ad actually comes from a licorice company seeking to convince tobacco companies to use licorice in their cigarettes with the inspirational message that...children like to eat second-hand smoke?
9. Doctor Recommendation:
This shameless ad proclaims that medical science will allow the five-year-old girl in the pic to live a longer, healthier life than her mother. And now that you trust your doctor, why not smoke the same cigarettes he smokes? Bonus pseudo-science tidbit: only your body's "T-Zone" -- your throat and taste buds -- can determine your cigarette of choice. (So suck it, doc.)
10. Dentist Recommendation:
...You'll rot your teeth much more slowly with Viceroys.
11. An Ounce of Prevention:
To its credit, this ad boasts no claims that its cigarettes cure anything...they just "prevent" a bunch of stuff.
12. G.I. Joe Cigarette Comics:
Certainly not aimed at kids (ahem), this colorful comic teaches readers about not only the wonders of smoking, but also the intricacies of chemical warfare and the functionality of Japanese slurs. T-Zone in the house!
13. Smokin' Santa:
Instead of cookies and milk, try leaving a pack of Lucky Strikes for St. Nick.
14. What Every Woman Should Know About Her Nerves:
This condescending ad figures the best way to discuss a woman's need for cigarettes is to compare her to...a dog?
15. Do You Smoke After Strenuous Exercise?
"First a cigarette, then a shower." Then cancer.
16. For Those With Keen Young Tastes:
Nowadays, Big Tobacco shies away from overt marketing to teens, but back in the day, there were ads like this one, which declares a love for young smokers for their "eager, unspoiled tastes." And the fact that they have 50-plus years of cigarette purchasing ahead of them -- if they're lucky.
17. Statue of Liberty's Birthday:
This ad rides on the coattails of the Statue of Liberty's 75th anniversary by paralleling the statue's significance with that of the cigarette's low-tar, high-taste content. Stay classy, L&M.
18. "Throat Protection":
In this 1937 ad, legendary actor Gary Cooper proclaims, "As my throat means so much to me in my business, it's plain common sense for me to prefer this light smoke." He died of lung cancer in 1961.
19. Foot-In-Mouth Disease:
In 1969, the American Tobacco Company took out this full-page ad protesting the New York Times' requirement that cigarette ads contain a health warning and tar/nicotine content statistics. The ad claims, in part: "Sure there are statistics associating lung cancer and cigarettes. There are statistics associating lung cancer with divorce, and even with lack of sleep...we are not going to knuckle under to the Times or anybody else who tries to force us to accept a theory which, in the opinion of men who should know, is half-baked." Oops.
20. The Flintstones Sell Cancer Sticks:
Posted by Sammo on 28/7/09
Between the one with the baby and the one blowing smoke in the girl’s face, I’d say the 60s were a mess of testosterone and ignorance.
Posted by Valen on 28/1/10
Hello. Are these images public domain? I would like to use them.
Posted by kissingfins on 27/3/10
60’s! Not all these ads were from the 60’s a lot were from the 40’s and 50’s The first “Dr. Spock” baby book (40’s) advised Mom’s who wanted to breast feed to light up to let the milk come down. Was pretty darn common….and everyone, nearly so, smoked.
Posted by notasmoker on 30/3/10
I find it interesting that you criticise these old ads for “brain-washing” and “manipulation” and yet you use words such as “cancer sticks” to describe cigarettes. I am not a smoker, and I do believe that cigarettes are the cause of a great deal of damage to the health of the general community. I also believe that people should be educated about the dangers of smoking.
But using over-emotional, manipulative words like “cancer-sticks” in an article attacking others for their use of manipulative language kinda makes you look like a hypocrite.
I don’t disagree with your message, but if you want to be taken seriously, maybe rethink that approach.
Posted by mough on 3/4/10
I was born in the late 60’s. My parents (who were older)would weekly drive a 2.5 hour journey with all windows up and both mom and dad smoking. They didn’t want their hair to get mussed. While they did this I literally laid on the floorboard of the car for the freshest air, it sucked. When I see the ad depicting a little girl and her father enjoying smoke rings together, that was just as it was with me and my old man. Cigarettes literally own their users, nicotine addiction is a real scourge.
Posted by ross Bennett on 25/4/10
My Mom said after she delivered my older brother, which was a difficult delivery, the Doctor pulled out a pack and they lit up.