Old Cigarette Ads Evoke Smoky Nostalgia

New Exhibit Chronicles The Often Outrageous Claims Made By Big Tobacco

(AP)  A phalanx of white-coated doctors endorses Camel cigarettes in an exhibit that opened this week at the New York Public Library.

Movie stars and baseball greats are there, too, in tobacco ads dating from the 1920s to the 1950s. Even Santa Claus is there, puffing on a Pall Mall.

The exhibit, titled "Not a Cough in a Carload: Images Used by Tobacco Companies to Hide the Hazards of Smoking," opened Tuesday and will be at the library's Science, Industry and Business branch on Madison Avenue through Dec. 26.

It was curated by Dr. Robert Jackler, an associate dean of continuing medical education at Stanford University.

Jackler said he and his wife, Laurie, chose the images from about 5,000 tobacco ads he began collecting when his mother, a longtime smoker, was diagnosed with lung cancer. She died last year.

"For us, this was a memorial to her," Jackler said in a telephone interview.

The exhibit features hundreds of ads from such magazines as Life and the Saturday Evening Post, digitally enhanced to restore faded colors.

In a Camel campaign from 1946 to 1952, doctors are seen peering into microscopes, making house calls and announcing, "It's a boy!"

The ads proclaim that a survey had shown "more doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarette."

In that survey, Jackler said, doctors attending medical conventions were given cartons of Camels and then asked to name their favorite cigarette brand.

Many of the ads make claims that seem laughable now, when packs of cigarettes come emblazoned with warnings about "serious risks to your health."

The vintage ads claim cigarettes improve your disposition and aid your digestion. "Scientific tests" prove that Lucky Strikes and Chesterfields are milder than other cigarettes.

Jackler said the intent of cigarette advertising is the same now as it was half a century ago - to induce people, especially young people, to smoke.

"You'd make a big mistake if you said they were bad then and they're good now," he said. "The messages are exactly the same."

Faced with criticisms of their advertising campaigns, tobacco companies have said the ads are intended not to encourage kids to smoke, but to persuade adult smokers to switch brands.

R.J. Reynolds says on its Web site: "Marketing standards for tobacco products should minimize the exposure of minors to tobacco advertising, be consistent with constitutional protections and provide information allowing adults to make an informed choice."

Cigarette ads have long used images of nubile youth to suggest that smoking will make you attractive to the opposite sex.

The message was not subtle in the 1920s. A Lucky Strike campaign in the exhibit shows slender, good-looking people shadowed by the rotund silhouettes that await them if they don't start smoking.

The tag line is, "Reach for a Lucky Instead of a Sweet."

According to the exhibit's wall text, the campaign was derailed when the candy industry threatened litigation.

"You walk through there, and it makes you want to smoke," said Jackler, 54. "These ads are compelling even today."

Ads in the exhibit show movie stars, athletes and cultural icons like Santa lighting up. Joan Crawford and Jack Webb hawked several cigarette brands each. Other celebrity tobacco backers include Ronald Reagan, Lucille Ball, Marlene Dietrich, Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig.

One document in the exhibit illustrates the practice of tobacco product placement. It is a 1983 letter from Sylvester Stallone confirming that he would feature Brown & Williamson cigarettes in at least five movies in return for $500,000. The letter became public in the 1990s.

The materials were first exhibited at Stanford. The exhibit traveled to the University of California at San Francisco and Harvard University before arriving in New York.

Richard Olive, of San Rafael, Calif., chuckled as he scanned the vintage ads.

"It's nostalgic," said Olive, 66. "These ads were common in magazines when I was a boy. When I look at them now, they're ridiculous."

[rushman71]

Fact: You have a better chance of dying due to breathing in the CO2 exhaust than you could from 2nd hand smoke. But the health conscious freaks don''t want you to know that.

[skinnyminny2]

Funny, the ads never mention that smoking will also make them smell as bad as a buffalo carcass. I don''t care about someone else''s health--they can smoke themselves to death for all I care. Fact is, they stink and are horrible to be around. Warning young people that smoking will make them unattractive and gross might work better than warning them about the consequences to their health.

[swingalong]

Shoot,the word was the one that begins with a d and ends with mn. The other, which you do to socks, was also bleeped and that''s Walt Disney talk. Oh, well.

[swingalong]

I quit 14 years ago and would rather drop an anvil on my foot than touch tobacco again. If you try it once again after quitting, you''re immediately and hopelessly addicted again. An addiction? Sheesh. Without it, I couldn''t see straight. It will be the death of you for sure, so keep trying to quit. Never give up. Try new ways. One will work, but not if you never try. Once you find the right way, it''s a breeze -- unless you slip from grace just once and all is undone. Like Orpheus you may want to look back once, and then you have lost all. The patch worked for me. I put it on two days. That did it. I don''t know why. I was careful not to wave it in front of my nose and savor its nicotine smell. The gum you just chew and enjoy addicted as ever. Tobacco addiction is an addiction and a habit and a state of mind. The patch made me forget I was addicted for enough time that the withdrawal symptons were gone and I was free. Can I write a bad word? *** tobacco. (I wrote the strong form of ***.)

[omega40]

I recently bought some of the old Jack Benny shows on DVD and the episodes contain all the original lucky strike commercials. The show was sponsored by lucky strike and entire episodes were built around the lucky strike brand. Lucky strike, so round, so firm, so fully packed.

[scotch41-2009]

My brother, God rest his soul, died of Lung Cancer after years of smoking 4 packs of cigarettes a day...That''s a lot of cigarettes 24/7...Do the math.....

[scotch41-2009]

I quit smoking June 11, 2005 after arriving at the emergency room seeing double and having difficulty maintaining my balance....No, it had nothing to do with my screen name on this post...it was as a result of a stroke brought on by arrhythmia (irregular heart beat) often a side effect of smoking.

[element51]

sincityq....Thank you for your understanding post. It shows that you are a compassionate person who does not jump to judgement. Smokers are indeed classified by most as lepers and many of us can understand why. I have always tried to be considerate of non-smokers, even to the point of not smoking in my own home if we have guests that are non smokers. The truth is that many of us are even more against smoking than non-smokers because we are familiar with the reality of what smoking does to a person. Sometimes I wish that tobacco would be made illegal but the realities of that show how it would never work. Someone needs to invent a pill. Ha ha.

[toolmangler-2009]

have tried many times to quit I have been unsuccessful. When I see kids smoking today I want to rip the cigarette out of their mouth and kick their arses but of course I can''''t. I know someday they will wish that they had never picked that first one. It is amazing the power that advertising has.
Posted by Element51 at 12:54 PM : Oct 08, 2008



I understand your pain, I smoked from 1951 to 2004. I tried to quit many times but always went back. 7/10/2004 I went to the emergancy room with severe heartburn and died on the examining room table. If I had not been there on the table I would still be dead. A lot of people aren''t that lucky. (Quitting was a ''no-brainer'' after that and was as easy as pie.)
I hope you don''t wait that long.

[element51]

I grew up in the 50''s and was constantly bombarded with cigarette advertising. I accept full responsibility for my actions but by the time I was 17 I was totally addicted. If there was one thing that I could go back and change, and I have done some really stupid things in my life, I would never have picked up that first cigarette. It is a filthy disgusting habit and although I have tried many times to quit I have been unsuccessful. When I see kids smoking today I want to rip the cigarette out of their mouth and kick their arses but of course I can''t. I know someday they will wish that they had never picked that first one. It is amazing the power that advertising has.

[antoniof123]

"It''s nostalgic," said Olive, 66. "These ads were common in magazines when I was a boy. When I look at them now, they''re ridiculous."

Too bad the taboco exec''s are still allowed to roam free.