Posted on 01/02/2021 2:07:28 AM PST by nickcarraway
The end of televised cigarette ads changed everything from the entertainment industry to advertising itself. Tyler Sage
At 11:50 PM on Jan. 1, 1971, the last television ad for cigarettes ran on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, signaling the end of an era and shifting the media world in ways that are still being felt today.
You can see the minute-long spot below. It features Virginia Slims' controversial attempt to cash in on the women's liberation movement with the tag line "You've come a long way, baby."
Tobacco has played a role in American life for almost as long as humans had lived here. First cultivated by people in Central America an estimated 7,000 years ago, the plant spread to Europe when colonial trade was established across the Atlantic, making it an economic fixture of the American colonies and, eventually, the United States. By 1864, cigarettes were popular enough domestically that the U.S. government levied the first national tax on them; a century later, by some estimates, around 50 percent of American adults smoked.
This rapidly became a major public health issue, and from the 1940s on there was a great deal of documented research — by both the government and private groups — linking smoking to cancer. This information did little to dissuade the public: Though they had the evidence available to them about smoking's health risks, they were faced by an advertising blitz from cigarette companies, convincing them that smoking was fashionable, cool, manly, sexy and, yes, really good for you.
This blitz had a particular hold on the entertainment industry. Tobacco companies sponsored TV shows and filled movies with product placement ads, aided by the fact that, on black and white film stock, the smoke trailing up from a cigarette had a undeniable beauty. The companies also spent heavily on regular advertising — by 1969, they were the largest product advertisers on television.
Alarmed, public health advocates mounted anti-smoking campaigns, and in April 1970 President Richard Nixon signed legislation banning cigarette advertising on television. This took effect the following year, and the Carson ad was the last to appear in this country.
The ad itself is a fascinating one, presenting a Victorian-era women's choir singing about how they don't want to vote or smoke or disobey their husbands, while sneaking surreptitious puffs on a cigarette between lines. It then cuts to a fashionable 1970s model smoking a Virginia Slim, a brand sold as a "women's cigarette" — implying that her freedom to choose her own cigarette marks her as a liberated woman. Meanwhile, the jingle in the background assures us that Virginia Slims women have "Come a long, long way!"
That pitch took advantage of then-current events by linking smoking to women's liberation and feminism. In much the same way, the decades-long (and still popular) Marlboro ad campaign featuring a tough-guy cowboy called "The Marlboro Man" links smoking to manliness. The fact that smoking likely led to the deaths of numerous male models featured in the ads — along with John Wayne, the poster boy of the American movie fascination with the cowboy — seemed to not bother the company at all.
As advocates argued it would, the 1971 advertising ban worked, albeit slowly. Smoking levels began to decline in the population, causing the cigarette companies to mount a decades-long, rabid, science-assaulting quest to assure the population that there were no known unhealthy effects of smoking — this despite their own research to the contrary. (See the Al Pacino and Russell Crowe vehicle The Insider if you want Hollywood's take on that story.)
Eventually, Big Tobacco was forced to admit that their product was hazardous. In 1998, the tobacco Master Settlement Agreement was reached between the largest cigarette manufacturers and the U.S. government, resulting in payments from the companies to the states to reimburse them for the healthcare costs of cigarettes, along with an agreement to limit advertising to minors. It was a long, strange battle, perhaps the most protracted one ever fought in this country between the government and an industry.
Equally as interesting as the public health history is the media one. There's a fascinating argument to be made that the loss of ad revenue following the 1971 ban resulted in the 30-second television ad. Up until then, ads had run for 60 seconds, but when the tobacco company was forced to remove its dollars, the television companies had to figure out a way to replace the lost revenue, and they did so by selling shorter, cheaper ads. This was the first step in the decreasing length of ads (congruent with the shortening of attention spans) that has continued until this day, with five-second ads common on both TV and the Internet.
And it's not just television that has changed. Magazines used to be littered with full-page glossy photos of people on mountains and in sports cars smiling and puffing away; now these same images feature people consuming protein bars or power drinks. The same effect can be seen in movies. After 2007, when the MPAA announced that smoking would be a factor in film ratings (a character smoking now virtually guarantees a movie at least a PG-13 rating), on-screen smoking has declined so quickly that it's now almost shocking when a character lights up. Watching an old film in which characters seem to light a cigarette every time there's a conversation over 30 seconds long is like entering another world, one that seems unimaginable today.
The ripple effect can be felt all over our entertainment world. Lounge singers and comedians used to routinely smoke onstage, and actors frequently served as spokespeople for tobacco companies. When the band Brownsville Station recorded "Smokin' in the Boys Room" in 1973 — and even when Motley Crue covered it in 1985 — sneaking off to smoke in the bathroom and blow the evidence (of whatever it was you were smoking) out the window was a recognizable element of teen life; these days it's a virtually unfathomable concept.
Or is it? Although smoking has begun to fade out of our culture, tobacco has not. Vaping, the industry claims, is a perfectly healthy activity - although health experts strongly disagree. It seems that the more some things change, the more they stay the same, although "Vapin' in the Boys Room" doesn't quite have the same ring to it.
If cancer is eliminated and/or cured the American Cancer Association (and all other cancer “charities”) go out of business.
Follow the money....
Philadelphia's soda tax may have little consumption-reducing effect if https://drexel.edu/now/archive/2020/February/Soda-Tax-and-Beverage-Consumption/ is to be believed. Maybe because Philly's tax isn't quite as stiff as Seattle's?
Are there taxes on other sugary foods out there?
ff
It was a ‘friend’ in good times and bad.
My daughter found her mother dead on the floor beside the bed.
She had been trying to make it to her oxygen supply but the COPD won the battle.
I’ve lost too many people to lung cancer.
I detest the habit. I quit it myself 13 years ago.
*** the government started giving cigarettes to service members in World War I.***
Dad was a non-smoker till he got hooked in WW II. He then never could break the habit.
I spent 4 years in the military and never received a cigarette. I did have a ration card for beer and cigarettes but never used them.
On a commercial airplane flight in 1966, I was given a meal and two cigarettes, free. I gave them to someone else.
I still remember the last advertisements o Johnny Carson.
After that date the TV was inundated with advertisements for “Cigarillos.” I still remember the jingle... “WINCHESTER’S SOMETHING ELSE! Winchester...!”
Also, movies began product placement of cigarettes in various films. I still remember the movie Backdraft (1991) in which after a bad fire, all the firemen are shown lighting up and puffing away.
Now am binge watching the old TWILIGHT ZONE. Everyone on that show is shown smoking, including Rod Serling. “Brought to you by OASIS Cigarettes!”
***the military cigarette ration was to tide you over if additional food was delayed.***
People inhaled cigarette smoke different back in those days. You sucked the smoke into your mouth, then swallowed it to your stomach, then burped it back up and blew it out. All this bypassed the lungs.
Later they sucked it into the lungs.
Nasty either way.
Sung to the tune of Santana's "Evil Ways"!
ff
There is one customer I have where smoking is allowed in the entire factory. The offices and even the data center isn’t off limits.
It’s a flashback to 1975. I won’t say who it is.
Agree a lot more stupidity now days.
Like Robin Williams said, “You steal our land, we give you monkey on your back!”
The first season of Mad Men was classic, about how they came up with the Lucky Strikes “It’s Toasted” ad.
Lol!
10-4
My cousin, a nurse finally broke him of the habit but it took years.
Still have one on my key chain.
“Come to where the flavor is. Come to Marlboro Country!’’
LOL! Yep they always advertised as if it was food. I was addicted to cigarettes and the only thing that ever mattered to me was how much nicotine a butt had. I don’t remember anything having to do with “flavor” unless it was a menthol which I stayed away from. I read once all those Marlboro cowboys died from cancer, 5 of them.
I also think that is was just a distraction with a nicotine rush replacing the energy provided by food.
My question about warning labels still stands.
ff
“My question about warning labels still stands.
“
And it is a good question. But liberal governments, like reside in Washington, mainly King and Pierce Counties that control the entire state’s voting numbers and are liberal as he((, support the taxing of anything they can which can make the state money while creating behavioral modification.
We have the highest gas tax in the nation to try to force people into public transportation, we have a huge tax on commercial vehicles (trucks) using the highways to buffer the road repairs that is little used for that, property taxes are completely out of control and are not protestable as the board you go to has no power to change anything, (I tried once), we have a sales tax in excess of 9% that is supposed to full fill the absence of a state income tax (day ain’t over on that as they are talking again)...there are a number of other taxes along with liberal propoganda added up that are there to create an atmosphere of response their way. And they bombard the public with anything and everything they can in this direction. And they lie.
So get ready for about anything now that the liberals are in control. It’s going to be a bumpy ride. All this crap will be coming to a state near you soon.
wy69
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.