In 1946, the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company ran a Camel cigarette ad campaign with the slogan, “More doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarette”.
Of course they had no way of knowing the dangers back then.....but wow.
As far as being addictive, in the early 2000s I came to work at 6:30 one morning, with the wind blowing 20 knots or so and with the wind chill it was 13 degrees.
Walking between two buildings freezing my butt off I encountered at least 4 or 5 people tucked into recesses in an attempt to shelter from the wind.....all were smoking.
I realized at that point if people needed to smoke that bad the addiction must be terrible.
That used to p*ss me off to no end when I was in the military. ‘Smoke Break!’ Losers who smoked got a good 15-20 minutes OUT OF EACH HOUR OF WORK to friggin’ SMOKE!
I kept a book in my desk. When they all went on ‘break’ so did I!
Actually, I couldn’t stand ‘not working’ while I was being paid by The American Taxpayer. I was glad to have them out of the office (the ‘Boss,’ too!) for some peace and quiet. P*ss-poor leadership skills, if you ask me. ;)
I, too, grew up sleeping under card tables while the parents and other relatives smoked and played cards well into the night, above me. That’s the way things were until we all knew better. You’d probably get arrested now for the childhoods some of us actually lived! :)