by waaytoomuchintothis » Thu Apr 27, 2017 6:15 pm
I grew up with ads like that and TV commercials with doctors promoting various brands, pilots and firemen, and cops, and politicians all did these. I remember "Life" and "Look" magazines had full page ads with gorgeous women and impossibly handsome men, all smoked up. Lots of Hollywood people, too. For me, as a kid in the 50s, it was nothing at all. Nobody thought anything of it, and nobody I ever heard of started smoking because of it. The ads were to promote specific brand names, because incredibly, it was assumed that everybody smoked cigarettes. It really never occurred to anyone I ever heard of that there was a health concern associated with it. That started around 1967 or so, and took hold seriously around 1974. It took me until 1994 to completely let go of cigarettes, and I struggled for nearly 20 years to do it. I started because it was cool to smoke, it went with the ducktail greaser hairdo and a cobbled together Moped to imitate a motorcycle. Collar turned up in back to identify me as a "hood", pointed Beatle boots, etc.
Just to set the scene for any young ones among us...