Tobacco Ads

[Undertow]

I would have posted this in The Connoisseur area, but I felt the following was less about "enjoyment" and more about history. Bartenders, please feel free to move if necessary.

Stanford University Ad Research

Included in this Gallery are some absolutely amazing/ridiculous ads for tobacco that really capture the common sense prevailing in the Golden Era. There is everything from celebrity promotions to medcal "facts".

If nothing else, this gallery has some awefully interesting vintage ads in pristine condition.

 

[Miss 1929]

Pages and pages of them!

Thanks, this is great fun! Makes me want a ciggy though, probably not their intention...

 

[Undertow]

I'm just curious if anyone knows whether or not these companies KNEW cigarettes were harmful during the Golden Era.

After browsing through many of these ads, it seems like the companies may have known cigarettes weren't as beneficial as they advertised. However, to say these companies willfully distributed ads like this knowing a person would get cancer, etc. seems a little strong to me.

Anyone have background on the Golden Era tobacco companies?

 

[LizzieMaine]

Look up a book called "Ashes to Ashes: America's Hundred Year Cigarette War," by Richard Kluger. It's an overall history of the 20th Century cigarette business, with an emphasis on what was and was not known about health concerns, and the active efforts made by the industry itself to quash investigation of those concerns. The source material comes directly from corporate files, made public in the '90s by a federal consent decree, and it appears evident from Kluger's research that there was internal discussion of possible cancer risks as early as the mid-thirties -- discussion the companies made every effort to suppress.

 

[HarpPlayerGene]

I'm a recovering advertising man (and still smoker ) and I love seeing the old layouts.

WAAAY back in England, when tobacco was capturing their fancy by way of import from America, there were common-sense people who declared it to be bad for your health. I'll try to look it up, but I recall reading a pronouncement from some form of royalty about the dangers of smoking. Although they could not have diagnosed and qualified specifics like cancer, they were well aware that it did damage to the throat and lungs. Duh.

Then, in the 19th century there was a popular little poem which I saw on an antique wooden cigarette pack dispenser belonging to my grandfather:

"Tobacco is a dirty weed
I like it.
It satisfies no normal need
I like it.
It makes you thin
It makes you lean
It takes the hair right off your bean
It's the worst damn stuff I've ever seen
I like it."

Then, in the (I guess) 1970s or '80s everyone alluvasudden acted like, "We've never known this isn't a healthy pursuit. We've been FOOLED by those cigarette ads into thinking this was good for us - - we have no brains of our own - - now pay us off big time!"

C'mon.

 

[KY Gentleman]

Way back when my grandparents used to refer to ciggerettes as "coffin nails".
I think it was fairly common knowledge that smokes were bad for you.

 

[shortbow]

There is some thought out there that the cancer risk of cigarettes materially increased with the introduction of chemical fertilizers, which manage in some mysterious way I don't understand the chemistry of, to cause the absorption of radon into the plant. I'm guessing this happened in post-Golden Era American tobacco farming?

 

[Undertow]

And that's where I start wondering...

Did they know it was going to cause some sort of cancer?

Or did they think it was bad for your lungs/throat and basically caveat emptor?

Consider; everyone knows if you drink too much on a regular basis, there's a chance you're going to die young (medically, not as a result of accidents, etc.), and we all know that whiskey can cause "rot gut" or antagonize ulcers. But if someday in the future we find out that whiskey definitely causes cancer, will we be at the throats of spirits distributors claiming they knew all along?

Or is this a situation where everyone knew it wasn't good for you, but no one actually knew it was going to kill you?

I know I'm splitting hairs, but I think it's important when trying to gain a better understanding of the Golden Era and the mind sets of the population during that time.

 

[Cricket]

First, I have quit smoking. And these old ads made me want to light one up again. They make it looks so ....nice.

Second, I always wondered as well about whether people were really aware of the dangers of smoking in the Golden Era. In every movie, it seems as if a pack of smokes were not to far from anyone. It seemed more acceptable yes but were they were aware of cancer and so forth?

And yes... I would really like one now please. Must keep willpower up.

 

[LizzieMaine]

People were certainly aware that smoking wasn't the healthiest thing to do -- most athletes in training were forbidden to smoke, for example -- and the general public didn't have the documentation of health risks we have today, but there was plenty of common-knowledge about it: "Those things will kill you someday," "Those things will stunt your growth," etc. etc. etc. But at the same time, people rationalized it by saying "they help my nerves," "they calm me down," "they keep me thin," "they help me think," etc. etc. etc. With a depression and then a war to deal with, a cheap, readily-available escape like a cigarette wasn't something most people were willing to give up on the basis of maybes.

People really didn't start to take the health concerns seriously until the fifties, with the move toward filter cigarettes. It wasn't until the late fifties that a positive link between cancer and smoking was documented -- and that led to the "Surgeon General's Warning" first appearing on cigarette packs in 1965. Only then did the mood really start to turn.

 

[Flivver]

In 1964, several months prior to the warning appearing on cigarette packs, the Surgeon General's report on smoking was broadcast on TV. My Dad saw that broadcast and stopped smoking immediately. He lived to be 89 and never had any smoking related illnesses.

But, the kids in my neighborhood didn't pay much heed to the Surgeon General's Report. One of my friends started smoking in the third grade (he was always a bit advanced for his years). By Junior High (Grades 7-9). however, most of my friends, boys and girls alike, had started smoking to be "cool". The smoke on our Junior high school bus was so thick that I stopped riding the bus and started walking to school.

I never picked up the habit...the example set by my Dad resonated with me. But it meant that I was branded a geek by the "cool" kids, and couldn't be seen with some of my best friends when we were at school. Hanging around with a geek might hurt their image. But, away from school, we were still friends.

 

[Undertow]

Thanks for the info LizzieMaine! And thanks for that anecdote Flivver!

 

[Subvet642]

As for myself, I smoke and I like it. I was born in '63, so every pack of smokes I've ever bought had the warning on the pack. My parents smoked, and died young from causes absolutly unrelated to smoking. I know of a health "nut" who got run over by a garbage truck bicycling to work. My point is: Life is uncertain, I won't live a life of self deprivation thinking that I will live longer. When my number's up, it's up. Enjoy life now, tomorrow may not give you a chance. I'm not saying people should start smoking, this is just my personal point of view. Besides, smoking provides more accessory possibilities. And if I quit, there would be a line of people a mile long ready to take credit for it, and I would never hear the end of it. To keep it on topic; framed vintage ads would look great in bar area.

 

[Blackjack]

Smoke em if you got em.....

 

[DerMann]

People were certainly aware that smoking wasn't the healthiest thing to do -- most athletes in training were forbidden to smoke, for example -- and the general public didn't have the documentation of health risks we have today, but there was plenty of common-knowledge about it: "Those things will kill you someday," "Those things will stunt your growth," etc. etc. etc. But at the same time, people rationalized it by saying "they help my nerves," "they calm me down," "they keep me thin," "they help me think," etc. etc. etc. With a depression and then a war to deal with, a cheap, readily-available escape like a cigarette wasn't something most people were willing to give up on the basis of maybes.

People really didn't start to take the health concerns seriously until the fifties, with the move toward filter cigarettes. It wasn't until the late fifties that a positive link between cancer and smoking was documented -- and that led to the "Surgeon General's Warning" first appearing on cigarette packs in 1965. Only then did the mood really start to turn.

That was the same Surgeon General's report that found that pipe smokers lived longer than non-smokers (as long as they smoked 3 or less bowls a day).

Always found that interesting.