Althouse: Your baby wants you to smoke.

September 18, 2008

Your baby wants you to smoke.

1950s ads (via Boing Boing).

I love the notion of not wanting to "feel over-smoked."

36 comments:

Sam Brazys said...: Now with more ni-co-glycerol...

"I don't know what's in 'em, I just know I can't stop smokin' 'em"; 9/18/08, 8:35 AM
Swifty Quick said...: That was back in the days, pre-Marlboro-man, when the brand was aimed at women.; 9/18/08, 8:37 AM
bleeper said...: I know I don't want to feel oversmoked. I avoid that by not smoking. Too simple, I know, but there you go.

Oversmoked indeed. A porkloin maybe, but a customer? What were those marketing pukes thinking?; 9/18/08, 8:38 AM
bill said...: My favorite is this Tour Day France poster: "During this period, riders believed that smoking cigarettes 'opened up' their lungs, allowing them to race better."; 9/18/08, 8:46 AM
vbspurs said...: Flintstones take a Winston break

Although the beginning of the skit sounds like a really bad gay-for-pay movie intro.

"Hey, Fred, let's go behind this rock."

Eww. ;); 9/18/08, 8:46 AM
TMink said...: I seem to recall over smoking in college. I just fell asleep.

Trey; 9/18/08, 8:50 AM
George M. Spencer said...: Smoke 'em while you got 'em.

"Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit smoking..."
--Mike Nelson

Headlines from today's Wall Street Journal:

Mounting Fears Shake World Markets
As Banking Giants Rush to Raise Capital
(banner)
Worst Crisis Since '30s With No End in Sight
(top of fold, page one)
Lending Among Banks Freezes
Crisis Hits Firms Big and Small
Russia Visits Finland on Tank Holiday
Stocks Fall as Bank Gloom Deepens
How to Handle a Market Gone Mad
People Look to Sky for Salvation
Rumors of Global Power Cut
Garbage Haulers Hoist Prices
Even the Strongest Will Have to Adjust; 9/18/08, 8:50 AM
Kevin said...: Ever see the pilot episode of Mad Men. It's 1960s Madison Avenue and one of the firm's largest clients is Lucky Strike as FDA crackdown on cigarettes begins.

Just amazing stuff they did in cigarette ads back then.; 9/18/08, 8:51 AM
MadisonMan said...: Babies can stop you from smoking too. In the 50s when my brother-in-law was very small, he told my mother-in-law that she smelled (she smoked). She quit that day.; 9/18/08, 8:52 AM
vbspurs said...: Poor Lucille Ball...a victim of her own advertising. She had a voice like a trucker at the end.

"Clean and fresh taste after smoking"

Ugh, liars.; 9/18/08, 8:53 AM
KCFleming said...: Be kind to the smoker. Her taxes (cigarette in small, SSI/Medicare/income in large) combined with her early exit from the stage make her a net profit for the government, and much greener-than-thou (smaller net carbon footprint).

But I suppose I shouldn't mention that.; 9/18/08, 9:02 AM
George M. Spencer said...: Re: Mad Men...

Marlboro was one of the first cigarettes to have a different color on the filter wrapper (red).

Originally, it was a cigarette for women (mild as May!). Other cigarettes had white paper wrappers, and because smoking was unseemly enough, women did not want to leave lipstick traces.

Then, to boost market share, Marlboro replaced feminine imagery/copy with images of sailors and tough guys. Finally, they stumbled on the cowboy, and the rest is history.

A good metaphor for Afghanistan. Yul is too cool.; 9/18/08, 9:07 AM
vbspurs said...: Oh Stinger! I thought you were going to link to this Yul Brynner PSA video.

"Whatever you do, just don't smoke"

I remember seeing that even in the UK as a kid. It really scared me.; 9/18/08, 9:11 AM
KCFleming said...: It was interesting to see WF Buckley rescind his libertarian call for free choice on drug legalization and in fact agree that smoking should be banned.

He was undone by his wife's smoking-related death.; 9/18/08, 9:11 AM
rhhardin said...: ``Lung surgeons need steady hands.''

Nat Lampoon re-creation of a 50s Camel ad in the 70s.; 9/18/08, 9:12 AM
rhhardin said...: Buckley turned into an old queen, mostly when neurons started flaking out.; 9/18/08, 9:13 AM
former law student said...: As I recall, smokers' babies were smaller, making delivery much easier.; 9/18/08, 9:14 AM
rhhardin said...: ``Smoke em if you got em.''

Lileks reports none of his child bicycle outing charges understood the reference.; 9/18/08, 9:15 AM
vbspurs said...: Tangential weird baby ad:

Pears Soap

WTF, I mean, just WTF.; 9/18/08, 9:19 AM
former law student said...: ``Smoke em if you got em.''

My buddy the Reserve Major started out as an enlisted man. During basic training, it began to bug him that smokers got cigarette breaks, to the point where he asked the sergeant if the non-smokers could get a "candy bar break."

And, decades before body wash became popular, the recruits were required to wash themselves with shampoo, because soap left a hard-to-scrub-off film on the shower walls.; 9/18/08, 9:21 AM
George M. Spencer said...: How sad about Yul. I had forgotten that.

Also, John Wayne and William Talman, the much oppressed Hamilton Burger, brother of the Chief Justice.; 9/18/08, 9:22 AM
vbspurs said...: John Wayne and William Talman

Was Talman really the first celeb ad against cancer? 1968, Christ.

The first "celebrity" who died of throat cancer, specifically due to smoking as it was reported, was Emperor Frederick II of Germany, the son-in-law of Queen Victoria. That was 1888.

You'd think people would have gotten a clue...

(And *weep*. Just watching that John Wayne ad makes me long for those Hollywood years. He'd probably flatten Obama, as soon as go to a fundraiser for him); 9/18/08, 9:30 AM
DaLawGiver said...: During basic training, it began to bug him that smokers got cigarette breaks, to the point where he asked the sergeant if the non-smokers could get a "candy bar break."

When I was in basic training ONLY smokers got breaks, everyone else had to stand at parade rest until the break was over. Hence, I didn't quit until 10 years later. During the first 10 years of my Air Force career almost everyone smoked. Even those who didn't smoke had ashtrays on their desks for self-defense. On the planes, as soon as wheels were up, everyone lit up. One non-smoker would put his oxygen mask on to escape the fumes. Of course he was ridiculed mercilessly.

Quiting nicotine was the hardest thing I ever did. Much harder than quitting alcohol or any of the various recreational drugs we used during the 70s.; 9/18/08, 9:39 AM
DaLawGiver said...: My Dad quit cold turkey, I couldn't do that. I slowly tapered off but couldn't shake that after dinner smoke so I devised my own plan. After dinner I would drink 3 double gin and tonics and eat a can of peanuts. Then it was lights out and I had made it through the day. Of course I started gaining weight but it was a good thing. I had always been one of those guys who could eat an entire chocolate cake and if I didn't eat a real dinner I would loose a couple of pounds. I never weighed more than 140 until I quit smoking. Now I don't drink any more but still weigh about 195.; 9/18/08, 9:48 AM
ricpic said...: Anyone here ever experience the pleasure of staying overnight in a smoking room in a motel that didn't have any non-smoking rooms available when you arrived? A never to be forgotten ordeal.; 9/18/08, 10:56 AM
William said...: Freud famously said that sometiimes a cigar is just a cigar. How little he knew. He died of throat cancer....I gave up cigarettes more than twenty years ago. I looked at one of the ads posted here and felt a twinge of longing. Smoking really is powerfully addicting.; 9/18/08, 11:03 AM
TMink said...: "Quiting nicotine was the hardest thing I ever did. Much harder than quitting alcohol or any of the various recreational drugs we used during the 70s."

Amen brother. It takes most people between 12 and 20 attempts to quit before they do. I was right around a dozen when the now x wife said something like "You can't quit, you are addicted to those things."

I have never smoked a cigarette since then, it pissed me off big time.

Trey; 9/18/08, 12:32 PM
Chip Ahoy said...: Ah, those must have been the good ol' days -- when tobacco companies openly supported candidates and vicey vercey, like Dole, and notables like Gore were unrepentant tobacco farmers.

I saw tobacco farms in North Carolina. The fields are beautiful. The drying barns are really tall. They look romantic, until you imagine the slave labor that must have been behind the industry, out there working in the hot sun.

I have this thing about connected sections of land growing a single crop. Pennsylvania had large swatches of corn. Nebraska has the same thing with wheat. I always thought I could drive a tractor real carefully and get the lines perfectly straight even though the surface undulated. I wondered why the turns were so often bolloxed. Then finally I got my chance! I drove a tractor for about three hours. It pulled a sixty-four foot wide implement. The cab was air-conditioned. We weren't doing anything vital, just "grooming" the field, which meant ripping up the weeds exposing the roots to the sun. The dirt was like powder and smelled sweet. Those turns are a lot more complicated than you'd imagine because suddenly you have to do a whole bunch of coordinated movements involving changing the gears and lifting and lowering the implement mechanism. My turns weren't as perfect as I had been privately demanding while contemplating them as a child from the backseat of a sedan.

This is all I have to say on the strange tobacco ad thread, except for perhaps, "those ads sure are weird."; 9/18/08, 12:47 PM
Susan said...: My dad was a stockbroker back when brokerage houses had areas of theater-type seating where men would come in to sit and watch the board. And smoke. He totally reeked when he got home even though he personally didn't smoke.; 9/18/08, 12:48 PM
Chip Ahoy said...: Stop me if I already told you this.

My dad smoked when our family was young. He used to comb my hair. His gigantic hand held my head in a grip so complete no amount of squirming could escape and formed something akin to an awning above my brow that reeked of cigarette smoke and Old Spice™ combined. Either that or AquaVelva™. The two aftershaves sold in a typical BX. He had no discriminatory taste in scents whatsoever. Held captive thusly, a full warm-body bouquet bloomed directly above my nose. I was always released just before passing out. That became a primal scent deeply embedded in my psyche. It was kind of like waterboarding except it was a lot more dry. My brother endured the same torment.; 9/18/08, 1:13 PM
rhhardin said...: I never smoked and lived comfortably in a smoking world. I think the horrors are overrated.

Sometimes you small cigarette smoke.

It's just a familiar smell from the past, like autumn leaves burning is.; 9/18/08, 1:49 PM
blake said...: While there is more than a tinge of hysteria about smoking, I have been in close quarters with a chain smoker for a day and spent the subsequent weekend hacking out smoke-flavored phlegm. (Why yes! I do write greeting cards!)

But not all cigarettes, just this particular brand. My dad smoked, and I liked the smell all right.; 9/18/08, 7:01 PM
Bissage said...: I have a guilty confession.

A very, very guilty confession.

I grew up poor in the suburbs and never had a car until I was in my late twenties.

So I pretty much had to walk wherever I had to go.

Miles.

Anyway, when I was a kid I used to HATE the smell of cigarettes because my mother smoked.

But when I became a grownup, I eventually came to like it . . . you know . . . if I was walking along the road . . . and a car drove by at high speed . . . and the smell was very, VERY faint.

(And if they didn’t throw a beer bottle at me.)

Anyway, my mom eventually stopped smoking so we could have sexual relations.

It was great!; 9/18/08, 9:03 PM
blake said...: All right, I gotta know: Did you run this one by Mrs. Bissage?; 9/18/08, 9:06 PM
Bissage said...: Blake, I did.

Honestly.

She said, more or less, "I don't understand why you think that kind of sick stuff is so funny."

That launched me into a fit of convulsive laughter.

She got all disgusted and went off to bed.

I hit the button that said "Publish Your Comment."; 9/18/08, 9:16 PM
Bissage said...: And now I'm about to hit the button that says "Off To Bed."

See ya!; 9/18/08, 9:18 PM