September 3, 2018
"Remember how great...?"
Why am I posting this old TV ad? Here's the sequence: 1. I did a post on some banal Dan Balz column "8 questions for the midterm elections: A blue wave or not?" 2. In the comments, Henry made fun of Balz for writing "blue wave... blue tsunami... blue tornado.. a strong tide, a riptide or just a blue surge" and further mixed the metaphor by quipping what any intelligent, humorous person should quip, "blue serge," 3. As Henry pointed out, there's an old song "Blue Serge Suit," and I looked it up and found a Cab Calloway version to embed, 4. I made a new tag, "Cab Calloway," and added it retrospectively, 5. One of the old posts was "Records From My Father, Part 5: 'Remember How Great...?'" which was #5 in my "Records From My Father" series, in which I wrote about the album "Remember How Great?," which was actually put out under the Lucky Cigarette brand, 6. That had me thinking about the old Lucky Strike slogan, and because of the resonance with today's most famous slogan — "Make American Great Again" — I wanted to show you that ad.
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61 comments:
LSMFT
Lucky Strike, hitting back against those newfangled filters. Get your carcinogens pure, the way God made 'em.
Why do your six steps to "Remember How Great..." remind me of Billy in the Family Circus??
Be happy, go Lucky
Filterless cigarettes? Nothing beats Pall Mall, aka The Red Death.
Lucky's always tasted like crap. Camel's - non-filtered - that's the way to die.
During a routine medical examination many years ago, I mentioned to the doctor that I smoked for a short time, quitting in 1981. It is now in my permanent medical record. Typically, that would not be a big deal. Not a big deal until I went to purchase a new term-life policy 2 years ago. Boosted me to the next rate level.
If we’re going to do Cab Calloway, we have to start with his astounding performance in the Fleischer Brothers' 1932 cartoon "Minnie the Moocher"
L-S-M-F-T
Lucky Strikes means fine tobacco.
Those ad men back in the 60's really did their jobs well.
This brings to mind an even earlier Lucky Strike ad campaign, even before my time, with the slogan "Lucky Strike Green has gone to war." I have been told of it, but never really understood what it meant.
I remember seeing Cab Calloway at the Nectarine Ballroom. Sat about 15-20 feet away from him. Still had it.
And not just ad men in the 60's--the 40's and 50's too. "More Doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarette!" "20,679 Physicians say 'Luckies are less irritating.'" "Give your throat a vacation . . . Smoke a Fresh cigarette." "For Digestion's Sake . . . Smoke Camels." "Reach for a Lucky instead of a sweet." "No curative power is claimed for PHILIP MORRIS __ but AN OUNCE OF PREVENTION is worth a pound of cure. Philip Morris are scientifically proved far less irritating to the nose and throat."
Luckies tasted okay. You could really taste the cancer in Camels, Pall Mall, and Chesterfield. Kools were occasionally good. They had as much nicotine as Camels, but the menthol hid the cancer taste. Winston and Marlboro tasted like real cigarettes, and the filter made them a tad more sanitary. The recessed filter in Parliaments undoubtedly saved many people from early death by cancer. One of the great medical breakthroughs in my lifetime......Advertising must have been really effective. I have a vivid memory of all these cigarettes and the ads that accompanied them. Or maybe I just watched too much television.
Blogger tomaig said...
L-S-M-F-T
Loose Sweaters Mean Floppy Tits.
Hey - anybody else into NewAge artists doing songs about reincarnated alien babies tripping on cigarettes? No?
My bad. I guess I'm just not cool.
The lucky strike green has gone to war is a reference to their sending their cigarettes to the war zones during WWII for free - no charge to the troops.
Remember the headmaster of my elementary school smoked unfiltered cigarettes (gauloises). His fingertips were orange.
"I'm bigger than Jesus / Bigger than wrestling / Bigger then The Beatles / Bigger than breast implants"
- Guns and Cigarettes by Atmosphere
Fine - I'll stop - but Let's Quit Smoking.
The lucky strike green has gone to war is a reference to their sending their cigarettes to the war zones during WWII for free - no charge to the troops.
I thought it was supposed to be related to the pigments used in the packs but there was no evidence I am aware of that it was true
No - if we all quit smoking, who is going to pay the taxes currently collected from tobacco sales and earmarked for health care for children.
Remember, if you smoke, you are indirectly a health care provider. Besides, what about all the fine people who work at tobacconists who would be out of work? Shouldn't we care about them?
Fact Check about the claim.
From wiki:
The brand's signature dark-green pack was changed to white in 1942. In a famous advertising campaign that used the slogan "Lucky Strike Green has gone to war", the company claimed the change was made because the copper used in the green color was needed for World War II.[6] American Tobacco actually used chromium to produce the green ink, and copper to produce the gold-colored trim. A limited supply of each was available, and substitute materials made the package look drab.[7]
Lucky Strike was one of the brands included in the C-rations provided to US combat troops during the Second World War. Each C ration of the time included, among other items, nine cigarettes of varying brands because at the time, top military brass thought that tobacco was essential to the morale of soldiers fighting on the front lines
Remember how great smoking marijuana was?
Throw another baby on the barbie, we're done.
The lucky strike green has gone to war is a reference to their sending their cigarettes to the war zones during WWII for free - no charge to the troops.
Not quite. In 1942 he copper and chromium needed to make the green and gold ink on the old design package were strategic materials, and they wanted to modernize the Lucky pack design anyway to make it more attractive to women. An ad campaign was devised to make it appear that the change of package design was in aid of the War Effort.
The pack had originally been green, prior to 1942. Chromium was used for the ink pigment and copper for the "gold" around the edges of the emblem. As both were needed war materials, they opted for a white pack with red seal logo--and advertised their patriotic act. But they were planning to get rid of the green pack anyway, because women didn't like it. The clean white pack with the red logo on both sides that could be seen by passerbys led to a 40% increase in sales for the already number-1 brand.
I think if a person knows what LSMFT means, that person must be at least 65 years old.
My dad, a good Methodist boy, learned to smoke in the Navy, probably during long, boring stretches on the bridge with nothing to do but drink coffee and smoke. Among my earliest memories is that Lucky Strike pack in Dad's pocket. He moved on to Kools for a while and various other brands. By the time smoking killed him at 62 he was on Benson & Hedges Multifilter, a low-tar brand, for all the good it did him. The poor guy was a junkie, and try as he might he could not get the monkey off his back.
I quit fifteen years ago after smoking for twenty-five. It was going to kill me, and I really didn't want to die. I still have dreams where I'm lighting up.
A Happy Memory from My Misspent Youth
I just reread your post "My Father's Records #5" and it put me in mind of Hoagy Carmichael's "very unfortunate colored man" in his song "Hong Kong Blues" from the 1930's. Easily You Tubed.
I think if a person knows what LSMFT means, that person must be at least 65 years old.
The television cigarette ban didn't hit until April 1, 1970. I'll guess that people born after 1965 (53 years of age) would know nothing about Lucky Strike.
....and for some odd reason, I seem to remember it written LS/MFT.
I know what LSMFT stands for, yet I am just 61 years old. Boom!
-sw
The Crack Emcee said...
Lucky's always tasted like crap. Camel's - non-filtered - that's the way to die.
(not to sound bigoted, but,) Don't you smoke menthol?
My father was a wise man and a wise smoker. He never smoked a brand until he saw a commercial where a doctor (or at least some guy in a white lab coat) told him that that brand was A-okay health-wise.
Take up smoking when you turn 90.
(not to sound bigoted, but,) Don't you smoke menthol?
When I worked in my father's drug store, the white guys smoked Marlboro, and the black guys smoked Kool.
Anyone know who the announcer was for that commercial? To my ear it sounded vaguely like Johnny Carson, but it probably wasn't.
I was surprised to learn that Frank Gifford, the pro football player, filmed ads for Lucky Strike in 1963.
1) Asians who smoke have a lower rate of lung cancer than those in the US. It's called the paradox (Japanese or Asian, not sure).
2) Nicotine patches have shown some efficacy in treating alzheimer disease.
3) Nicotine is not what is addictive.
4) Why can't American cigarettes leave all the crap out?
Okay, you covered LSMFT and Lucky Strike green has gone to war but they had another longstanding commercial bit where a tobacco auctioneer spouted the gibberish that auctioneers actually use. The only two words of this you could actually understand were the last two, "sold American".
Because Lucky Strike was made by the American Tobacco Company.
Sold American!
The video is dated 1953, but I remember the gibberish of the auctioneer. I was born in 1956.
62, didn't recognize LSMFT. Dad smoked filtered.
Lung surgeons need steady hands. Camels to relieve tension.
Loose suspenders means falling trousers.
HT, this is all I can find about Asian vs Caucasian lung cancer.
Within the STS database, patients identified as Asian or Hispanic had a significantly higher pathologic stage at the time of resection than Caucasian or African-American patients. The causes of these differences in the treatment of potentially curable lung cancer are unknown and require further investigation.
Lord Save Me From Truman
Until he quit my Dad smoked "Salems".
I don't know why. Maybe the because "You feel a new smoothness deep in your throat"
i really wonder how much of the difference in brands was just due to advertising.
It reminds me of beer.
I doubt there was much difference except for filters.
My father smoked 5 packs a day until he quit too late. Died at 66.
My mother smoked only a bit and died at 103.
It was easy for me to find information on the "Japanese paradox."
Explanations for the smoking paradox in Japan.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12889681
http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/91/5/12-108092/en/
The observation that Japanese males tend to begin smoking later in life than males in the United States might explain why Japanese males have lower lung cancer mortality despite having similar or higher prevalences of smoking in adulthood. the lung cancer mortality rates in Japanese men remain surprisingly low given the high prevalence of smoking, perhaps because Japanese males rarely begin to smoke early in life.
I doubt there was much difference except for filters.
My grandfather smoked hand-rolled, unfiltered cigarettes from the age of 13 until he died at age 88. I suspect the act of hand rolling limited the number of cigarettes he could smoke in a day, thereby extending his life, but beer every morning for breakfast may have helped as well.
Blogger HT said...
It was easy for me to find information on the "Japanese paradox."
Maybe you would like to explain the stomach cancer rates while you are at it.
rhhardin said...
Lung surgeons need steady hands. Camels to relieve tension.
When I was a kid our family GP smoked in the examination room. I have a mental picture of him holding the stethoscope to my chest while a cig with a one-inch ash hung from his lips. Dr. Anderson was from Canada, where men were men.
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I remember as a kid seeing ads for cigarettes with the family while watching the Flintstones, when we'd ... "have a gay old time".
[rhardin] "Loose suspenders means falling trousers."
Back in the late '50s and early '60swe had a couple of other variants .... "Loose Straps Mean Flopping Tits" and "Let's Stop, My Fingers are Tired', but then again we were teenage boys.
Though I've never had a single puff (or toke) and anything, there were three cigs with what I found to be pleasant sidestream smoke, all of them unfiltered: Camel, Pall Mall, and Sweet Caporal. The latter two were my grandfathers favorite brands, and he always looked forward to my visits when I was in grad school in Canada, because I'd bring him several cartons of Sweet Cap, which was unavailable in the States. Since he was already in his 90s I figured that his two-pack habit would not lead him to an early death.
As a side note, when I was a young kid (early '50s) Marlboro was a women's brand. The whole Marlboro Man thing was a very successful effort to reposition the brand.
Maybe you would like to explain the stomach cancer rates while you are at it.
________
What? Why?
gilbar said...
"(not to sound bigoted, but,) Don't you smoke menthol?"
Blogger madAsHell said...
"When I worked in my father's drug store, the white guys smoked Marlboro, and the black guys smoked Kool."
I tease you guys about being a bunch of racists, but don't you think it's weird that - after years here - you white conservatives, who claim to appreciate and want to see individualism and all that, still don't think of me as an individual yet? And - before you answer - I just want it acknowledged this was a race-free post and comment section until you two started the stereotyping. Don't get me wrong - I'm not mad - but this individual doesn't like taking the blame for a whirlwind when it's y'all that's blowing the air. You started it, not me. Now - please, carry on.
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