So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[Trenchfriend]

The sleaziest Lucky Strike campaign in a long history of sleazy campaigns was the "Reach For A Lucky Instead Of A Sweet" campaign of 1928-29, which was aimed straight at women and promoted smoking as a means of controlling one's weight.

Yes indeed, contracting a wasting disease by sucking poisonous filth into your lungs will certainly knock off the old avoirdupois.

This was the campaign that finally roused the do-nothing eye-winkers of the Cooidge-era Federal Trade Commission into action. The FTC told Hill and his stooges that unless they had scientific proof that smoking is a reducing aid, they'd better lay off the claims, but they wouldn't have even done that much if a trade association of candy manufacturers hadn't filed a complaint.

This haircut! So, that was the origin of:

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q...74b9f34fc47c2536b31f0bcb1f2c9667o0&ajaxhist=0

 

[sheeplady]

When I was going through cancer treatment, they were playing these commercials on TV that had a man grasping for breath and something like, "This is what it is like to die from lung cancer from smoking."

Now, my type of breast cancer tends to metastasize to the lungs, brain, and liver; at which point it kills you very quickly. I can remember getting so upset whenever I saw that commercial; I mean this stupid commercial could ruin my day sometimes.

I actually asked my oncologist at one point if it would be like "drowning on dry land" (line from the commercial) if it spread to my lungs. As way of reassurance he said, "I can't say that you wouldn't feel like drowning, but I can reassure you that you would be heavily sedated and at that point a lot more would be going on with you."

It wasn't very comforting, to say the least. (In defense of my oncologist, my prognosis was quite poor AND it probably is like drowning, so what could he say?) I was so happy when they took that damned thing off the air. I've since had a cancer friend die of lung cancer, but she never struggled to breathe, thank god.

The sad thing is that commercial probably helped people quit or not start smoking, but I didn't really care the good it was doing, and I still wouldn't.

 

[Fading Fast]

Wow, I go to a few meetings and this thread becomes incredibly interesting and informative (and sheeplady, as always, I am so sorry you went through that, but very, very happy you are with us today).

Instead of an insane amount of quote copying, I'm sure we can connect the dots back to the comments.

2Jakes, I, too, really enjoyed "Mad Men." For me, it was the time travel to a period that I caught the very tail end of as a young kid. The style was incredible and the stories - overall - engaging. Still my favorite line from it was a Don Draper toss off that went something like "can you do what he does?" Basically, Roger Sterling was being dismissive of Lane Pryce's job as, effectively, the CFO, with the implication that what he and Don did - creative and sales - was the important stuff. It's not a memorable line to most, but it succinctly, effortless and completely destroyed Roger's argument - Don at his best. He had a weird sense of loyalty that could kick in at odd times.

Dr Strange - re Don getting credit for "It's Toasted," the same thing with Don's incredible advertisement for the Kodak Carousel commercial. That said, that might have been Don's greatest pitch on the show.

Jean Harlow had one strange, amazing and short life. I think she had a Marylyn Monroe ending in front of her (hopefully, I would have been wrong), but unfortunately, whatever was to come was aborted by her death from Kidney failure at 26. I read once that she never wore underwear on screen (or off) and I dismissed it as more silly prurience until I started watching her movies on a decent-sized TV - methinks it was an accurate call.

Lizzie, it breaks my heart as so many young girls in this city smoke to stay thin - I see them everywhere and feel helpless. I know I'd come across as a creepy stranger if I said anything (and I'd never do that - I'd be wrong to - not my place), but you wish somehow they could be reached.

Which leads to sheep lady's comment about the anti-smoking commercials, which are so horrific that I don't even want to go near a wrapped package of cigarettes, but as others noted, those graphic commercials seem to wash over those who want to smoke.

That's it - that's all I got. Great thread all.

 

[tonyb]

I was back in Seattle area week before last. Took time away from all the other matters needing my attention to visit an old friend, a guy I've known going on 40 years.

Glad I did it. He called a couple days ago to tell me he's diagnosed with Stage 3 lung cancer. Prognosis dismal.

 

[LizzieMaine]

And it was that Lucky Strike campaign in the twenties that really cemented for all time the idea that "smoking keeps you thin," an idea which has been passed down now thru the generations to kids who have absolutely no idea where it came from, but who take it as gospel truth.

I don't know where George Washington Hill is right now, but it would be only appropriate if he himself were being Toasted.

 

[sheeplady]

I don't know if any of the commercials work or not to stop people from smoking (or not start). I do know that they make people feel awful.

I was back in Seattle area week before last. Took time away from all the other matters needing my attention to visit an old friend, a guy I've known going on 40 years.

Glad I did it. He called a couple days ago to tell me he's diagnosed with Stage 3 lung cancer. Prognosis dismal.

I'm very sorry about your friend.

I know that this may or may not be helpful, but two things:
1. It looks like the 5-year survival rate for Stage 3 (A and B) range from about 15% to 5%, which are roughly what my 3-year prognosis was (5% was the "favorable" estimate), 3.5 years ago. While those odds are against your friend, they exist because *those 15% or 5% survive.* (I was also stage III, but that means vastly different things based upon the type and subtype of cancer.)
2. I know a woman with stage 4 lung cancer who is alive 25+ YEARS after treatment. She should be dead. She is not.

There is a lot we *don't* understand about cancer.

It's totally a crap shoot, those are my helpful good stories, and I'm very sorry. I am also glad you saw your friend.

 

[Fading Fast]

And it was that Lucky Strike campaign in the twenties that really cemented for all time the idea that "smoking keeps you thin," an idea which has been passed down now thru the generations to kids who have absolutely no idea where it came from, but who take it as gospel truth.

I don't know where George Washington Hill is right now, but it would be only appropriate if he himself were being Toasted.

To me, the trade-off between loosing weight and smoking could never, ever, ever be worth smoking, but I thought nicotine was - like any stimulant - an appetite suppressant. But I have no idea if that is right, nor where I got that thought, so I might just be another "victim" of the campaign from the 1920s.

 

[sheeplady]

To me, the trade-off between loosing weight and smoking could never, ever, ever be worth smoking, but I thought nicotine was - like any stimulant - an appetite suppressant. But I have no idea if that is right, nor where I got that thought, so I might just be another "victim" of campaign from the 1920s.

I believe it slows down the movement of food in the gut, so you don't get as hungry.

 

[LizzieMaine]

As I've said in other threads, tobacco killed most of my family. I have no tolerance for it at all, in any form, anywhere. And the way in which it was sold to the public doesn't just verge on criminal. It was and is criminal.

An excellent look at the history and the evil of Big Tobacco is Richard Kluger's "Ashes to Ashes: America's Hundred Year Cigarette War, the Public Health, and the Unabashed Triumph of Philip Morris," published in 1996. You'll never look at those "cute cigarette ads" of the Era in the same way again.

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

You want a surreal movie about tobacco? See if you can find "Bright Leaf," about a guy who invents the cigarette-rolling machine. I mean, it's got Gary Cooper and Lauren Bacall and Patricia Neal and it's directed by Michael Curtiz. With a stellar cast like that you'd think it would be a legend like "Casablanca." Watch it and see why nobody mentions it anymore.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

I remember my Dad quit smoking in the mid 1970s but I fear the damage had already been done because at that time he had already been a smoker for some thirty years. He started when he was 12!

 

[sheeplady]

My husband likes the smell of cigarette smoke... even the stale smell on clothes. (I blame both his grandmother's for this... they were heavy smokers, one smoked until 94 and the other smoked until her youngest grandson developed asthma and quit the next day at 70.) The husband's often told me he wouldn't mind if I smoked.

To be honest, I kind of like smoking, the few times I've done it. I'd probably be a smoker if it didn't have the possibility of killing me. (Strangely enough, all four of my grandparents had cancer; the two that survived it were the "heavy smokers" and the two that were killed by cancer (including one that had lung cancer) never smoked. No way in hell I'm going to test to see if that holds.)

 

[ChiTownScion]

As I've said in other threads, tobacco killed most of my family. I have no tolerance for it at all, in any form, anywhere. And the way in which it was sold to the public doesn't just verge on criminal. It was and is criminal.

I saw my mother die inch by inch, day by day, over a period of twenty years as result of it. When death finally came it brought an overwhelming sense of relief, knowing that her unrelenting suffering while fighting for the next breath was finally over. Broke off an engagement when I found out that my fiancee was smoking behind my back: my family told me that it was "only a habit " and that I could "learn to live with it." I promptly told them to go to hell.

I'm even less tolerant about it than you, Lizzie, I think. And I get physically ill when I'm exposed to second hand smoke. And as far as its "sex appeal?" It's like a wooden stake through the heart, as far as any desire or attraction whatsoever, when I see a woman light up.

Fanatical and intolerant, at least as far as this one issue? You bet. With no apologies.

 

[swanson_eyes]

And I get physically ill when I'm exposed to second hand smoke.

It can be a trigger for migraines--another good reason for smokers to avoid exposing the rest of us. Who'd want to contribute to someone else's pain, especially pain like that?

 

[Lean'n'mean]

It has been scientifically proven, smoking, drinking & sitting on your ass all day, helps maintain a slim, lean figure...9 out of 10 undertakers recommend it.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

Smartphones too keep you young, slim & sexy, not to mention interesting...............................what were they thinking back in 2016 !!! didn't they know WiFi & cell phones give you brain tumors back then ?

 

[Fading Fast]

You want a surreal movie about tobacco? See if you can find "Bright Leaf," about a guy who invents the cigarette-rolling machine. I mean, it's got Gary Cooper and Lauren Bacall and Patricia Neal and it's directed by Michael Curtiz. With a stellar cast like that you'd think it would be a legend like "Casablanca." Watch it and see why nobody mentions it anymore.

I hear ya and agree overall, but even without the crazy-to-our-present-day-standards, the movie doesn't, IMHO, really work. It feels like a failed mash-up of "Giant," "Executive Suite" and "Gone With the Wind." A shame, too, because, as you note, it has an outstanding cast.

 

[Trenchfriend]

As you surely know, some years ago, the boys from marketing changed the term "winter-jackets" to "city-jackets".

I imagine older people, far from bigger cities, searching on the internet for a simple, inconspicious and priceworth winter-jacket (not woolcoats/jackets) and wonder, why they find less or nothing.

PS:
The classic massmarket-winterjackets, made of very robust cotton/poly-mixtures are still one of my insiders'-tip! The poly-amount makes these jackets this robust and so warming.

 

[GHT]

I'm even less tolerant about it than you, Lizzie, I think.
Fanatical and intolerant, at least as far as this one issue? You bet. With no apologies.

Put me down as a fully paid up member of the anti-smoking mafia. In UK law, it's illegal to smoke in the workplace. designated smoking areas must have all round ventilation, they have become no more than a form of weather protection, similar to something like a bus stop shelter.
Some don't realise what the workplace is, by definition. Transport companies, for example, must display no smoking signs in the cab of their trucks. This is flouted so often. Time and again, following a truck, a cigarette end will fly out of the drivers window, covering the road in a shower of sparks. I pity the poor non smoking driver that has to climb into that cab after his tobacco addicted colleague has turned it into a fug of stinking stale smoke, worse than an opium den.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Search engines And how far off base they tend to be. I really like Amazon, but they are losing it where concerned with their search engine.

eBay is worse. It's been a bone of contention among small sellers that the search engine which has a nasty habit of hiding their listings is rigged in favor of big box megasellers and the Chinese, both of whom have contracts with eBay which guarantees a certain sell-through rate even if it means kicking everybody else to the curb. After selling books on eBay for nearly fifteen years it was the megasellers that totally destroyed it for me. One of these megasellers, Thrift Books, the largest online seller of used books, practically owns the bookselling concession on eBay. They're the ones who, operating under at least several different names, offer books for only $3.97 AND free shipping and have tens of thousands of listings at any given time. They also have a huge presence on Amazon and ABE.