What the Hell Was Going on with Cigarette Ads in the 70s? (2024)

lmm

"Error establishing a database connection", apparently? Groovy.

DANmode

Archived copy: https://web.archive.org/web/20260514073345/https://tohippo.c...

pixel_popping

Someone forgot to code a 5-liner RAM cache.

TurdF3rguson

Is it about how Joe Camel looks like a cock?

ViktorRay

It's so strange sometimes watching tv shows and movies from the 90's where you see characters smoking indoors in public places. Like in Seinfeld you will have episodes where Kramer is smoking in offices....and even in the doctor's clinic! There was an episode where Kramer took out a cigar and smoked in a doctor's waiting room. I thought he would immediately get in trouble but none of the other characters cared. And then you got movies from back then like Jackie Brown (which is a great movie by the way) where you see character's smoking in a mall cafeteria. A mall! A family friendly environment! And it's considered normal!?!?!? Blows my mind.

notahacker

Reminds me of reading my grandparents' old copies of National Geographic from a similar era. The ads were all attractively retro cars or cigarettes. A couple of taglines that stick in the mind are "the thinking man smokes" and "doctors recommend..."!

markyc

what will our grand kids be shocked to read about us and our acceptable 'cigarettes'? plastic everywhere social media as news teflon fossil fuel cars sugar/ultra-processed food

bramgn

and yet somehow that world seemed more healthy than today's

CodeCompost

Quit smoking 10 years ago. Best thing I ever did. I'm particularly inspired by articles like this: * https://www.webmd.com/smoking-cessation/what-happens-body-qu... According to the article I have 5 years to go till my body has completely recovered from the effects of smoking.

felooboolooomba

They didn't have a scientific proof that smoking was bad for you. Just like we don't have the proof that social media is awful for you and that Trump is a cult.

ffaser5gxlsll

Press page-down: scrolls the galleries right. Somebody thought this was a good idea, let alone intuitive.

juleiie

I miss this awful habit so much. Ever since quitting years ago I never really recovered. It’s like 35% of my mental focus and clarity evaporated. All these moments when something had to be figured out suddenly things became easy if you only went for a smoke. Solutions became crystal clear obvious and effortless. At a price. Without it is always like a little bit of heavy fog is obscuring everything. That I know could be instantly lifted by this terrible drug. I even remember my first time what a transcendental clarity it summoned. It was as if some thick veil fell from me in an instant. That’s very, very addicting and just useful. Does overclocking your brain is worth the accelerated parts wear and tear? Well I made a decision that it isn’t. That I am intelligent and privileged enough to hopefully achieve the things I want and enjoy them for longer.

0rbiter

And there I was wondering where all the bunkum came from that LLMs spit out. This is proof that we don't need AI to write hilariously absurd copy.

amriksohata

For those who are not that old, when cigarettes were mainstream there were many scientists (or business backed science) telling people that smoking was healthy. Then they decided to change tact when it became obvious it was causing lung disease.

RhysU

Absent any restrictions on targeting adults, what would cigarette ads look like today?

RichardCA

Here's a fun one, Benson and Hedges commissioned some classic 80's CGI, it got played at one of the art-house animation festivals that was a thing for nerds to do in the 80's. Looks like it was Robert Abel who did it. But what was the point? It seemed like they were trying to sell gold collectibles to rich people in Malaysia. https://youtu.be/fdBoKOpctp4

recursivecaveat

Today I learned that cigarette filters were designed to spontaneously brown on use to give the illusion that they had trapped a large amount of tar or whatever: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cigarette_filter#Colour_change

Clamchop

These don't seem strange to me at all. Lifestyle marketing, romance, appeals to independence, metaphor, and humor. All timeless advertising tropes. It's cigarettes themselves that are passé.

phendrenad2

If you want to browse old tobacco ads without the comedy schtick this site adds, Standord has an interesting archive: https://tobacco.stanford.edu/cigarettes/