January 1, 1971: The Last Cigarette Ads Appear on TV - ABC News

Same day report on the end of an era includes a montage of cigarette TV ads from the previous 25 years. Viewers of the bowl games got their last glance at Marlboro Country earlier that day and later in the evening when, at 11:50 pm on Jan. 1, 1971, the last television ad for cigarettes - Virginia Slims: "You've come a long way, baby" - ran on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.
(Sorry Shatner Method viewers, the Ronald Reagan "Chesterfields" thumbnail was just an attention grabber - in the news clip you'll have to settle for Lee Marvin instead.)
At the end, two non-cigarette ads from the same broadcast invite you to settle down with The Partridge Family and to take a walk with Dyan Cannon & the American Heart Association.

[@thomasjacques5286]

Born in 1952 and recalling most of these commercials, I stopped smoking "cold turkey" in AF Basic Training in Jan 1972. Now 71+ with no real medical conditions and walking 4 to 5 miles daily, that was probably the best decision I could have ever made.

[@joeysworldsewer]

My grandpa smoked until he joined the Navy and quit cold turkey. In his late 80s, his lung function is better than mine

[@johnnyfreedom3437]

I spent my career climbing Steel and blew it all with a bathroom for a couple of years ago at 66yrs old! The best I can do is make it around the block on a good day and I really miss my walking! Enjoy every day of your mobility, it could vanish in an instant!!

[@garyfrancis6193]

@@johnnyfreedom3437”blew it all for a bathroom”. What does that mean?

[@garyfrancis6193]

I was born in 1950. I had no interest in smoking, drinking or drugs. I was and still am unpopular.

[@joeysworldsewer]

@@garyfrancis6193 i smoke pot for medical reasons it feels great!

[@mikes1686]

Now they need to ban prescription drug commercials. Every time you turn on the television they are trying to push something on you and they all have their side effects just like cigarettes.

[@matthewmckee9914]

Yes I agree, new drugs and new vaccines, constantly. Something is going on and it's not for our best health.

[@jasondiaz8431]

Yes but where would we get all the side effects from.

[@chandlerwhite8302]

@@jasondiaz8431You better have really good eyes and be able to slow down super fast talking in your mind to understand any of that stuff anyway.

[@BruceLee-xn3nn]

My wife is Mexican and we watch alot of Spanish channels and they don't advertise that crap on the Spanish channels.

[@AMPProf]

HOW WILL I know if all shrink or go bald or die

[@namontn]

42 years old and haven't smoked in 9 years.

[@newton21989]

I imagine the tobacco industry got a good chuckle when ABC gave them nearly 6 minutes of advertising disguised as a news story.

[@dangerouslytalented]

Don;'t worry, the tobacco industry paid for it, a suitcase of cash under the counter, and it was no problem getting it on air.

[@Jack-t2n2e]

My uncle taught me, never have cigarettes, he said he try it and found he was short of breath. Realized cigarettes are no good for his health. This was in 1963 that he told me. And he lived to 96 yrs old. Wise words that I took thanks to my uncle.

[@thelasttaarakian]

My grandma is 96 and she is miserable. She’s been miserable since around 80 years old. I don’t think she values these past 16 years being taken care of, sitting in a chair and watching TV.

[@trentbrownstone1481]

@@thelasttaarakiannot a lot to value there

[@bjdon99]

Originally the last day of coffin nail ads was supposed to be December 31st 1970 but the cigarette companies were able to get it extended 1 day to 1/1/71 so they could advertise on the big New Years Day bowl games. All the ads that day were for cigarettes.

[@MichaelIrish]

My first birthday was 12/31/70

[@bjdon99]

​@@MichaelIrish Your dad was probably smoking a pack of Marlboros in your mom's hospital room, and the doctor that came in had a Camel lit as he checked on you. That's how things were back then.

[@jwr2904]

​@@bjdon99 yeah, in Rocky when Adrienne gets sick her brother lights one up in the hospital lol. Crazy, but I remember smoking sections in restaurants even into the late '90s

[@pinedelgado4743]

Didn't know THAT. Thanks for the 411!

[@beth1627]

@@jwr2904 I remember being asked, smoking or non smoking? in restaurants forever.

[@dancortes3062]

Wow, for some reason I expected cigarette ads to run longer than they did. Hard to believe that it's been 50 years since the last one.

[@adultmoshifan87]

I don’t know when cigarette commercials on TV were banned here in the UK but I know cigar adverts continued for a while, there were a number of Hamlet ads in the 80s! Cigarettes continued to be advertised on billboards until not long into 2003!

[@BM-ru7ef]

Yep, I wasn’t born when cigarette ads were still on tv, but I remember plenty of Joe Camel advertisements outside liquor stores. Back then, people still sent in “Marlboro Miles” for merchandise.

[@mE-zx7pt]

They were still in magazines during the 70s & early 80s at least. Example: "You've come a long way, baby..."

[@MikeCee7]

Don’t forget the Marlboro man ads, in magazines and billboards, were definitely still around in the 1980s.

[@bostonrailfan2427]

@@mE-zx7ptin the US magazines has ads for them into the early 90s before the industry was forced to drop them

[@yell0wberry]

It’s kind of strange that at least 15 years after the last cigarette ad, they were still doing cigar ads on TV

[@ApartmentKing66]

The theory, I think, is that you don't inhale the smoke from cigars and pipes as you do cigs.

[@JL-sm6cg]

Never mind I remember ads for chewing tobacco into the 80s.

[@mrchopsticks3]

I think cigar ads are still allowed on the radio. Cigar Dave hosted a Saturday show up until just a few years ago and he used to have cigar ads on his show.

[@lbjr777]

I remember Marlboros and camels had ads on tv in the 80s. I wasn’t born until 79.

[@jacktorrance2633]

​@@lbjr777Not in the United States you didn't. I was born in 1970 and I never saw one growing up in the 70s and 80s.

[@psychedelicfright85]

I'm only 37, but I do remember cigarette billboards, and ads in magazines. Restaurants being smoking/non smoking.

[@robinsss]

they can still advertise in magazines and on billboards

[@retroguy9494]

@@robinsss Not on billboards dude. That was banned in 1998.

[@adultmoshifan87]

@@retroguy9494 2003 here in the UK

[@retroguy9494]

@@adultmoshifan87 I hear that several years ago they also banned all smoking in the traditional UK pubs. Many movies or series we used to see here in the States which took place in England had scenes in traditional pubs where men talked over ale and cigarettes or pipes.

[@ryanhunsader7038]

I’m the same age. I remember massive ads in stadiums and let’s not forget the Winston cup in nascar

[@riveneva1519]

I come from a long line of smokers. In my early years we lived in Kentucky amid fields of Burleigh. Smoking was everywhere. Luckily, I had severe allergies to cigarette smoke and was never attracted to the habit. My grandmother smoked unfiltered pall malls for years and died a horrible, painful death later from lung cancer. My mother and father quit smoking soon afterwards. My aunt was a smoker and died from cancer. My mother and father had lingering health effects from smoking long after they stopped. I’m glad that the advertisements glamorizing smoking are no longer allowed. Cigarettes killed a lot of my family.

[@thelasttaarakian]

Your family killed themselves by choosing to smoke them. Its important to take responsibility for ones actions and not pretend being a victim.

[@dansanger5340]

My mom died of lung cancer the same year that TV cigarette ads ended. Maybe because of that I never had the urge to smoke. But, cigarette smoking was very common among young people at the time. In junior high, there was a location just off campus where students openly smoked. In high school in the 1980s, students were allowed to smoke openly in designated areas on campus. I'm so glad that cigarettes finally seem to be on the way out. They have caused so much death and misery.

[@pinedelgado4743]

OMG.

[@mandeljay]

“That was!”

[@theOlLineRebel]

Here we are 50 years out and still no cigs on Tv, almost never any ads of any kind anywhere. But by all means, continue the alcohol ads, adding the hard liquor ads, add wanton sex ads, and marijuana ads. Great. You’re really virtuous!

[@supernintendo182]

Marijuana doesn't kill.

[@theOlLineRebel]

@@supernintendo182 Delusional, just like all the "no one gets harmed and no one turns violent" defenses of unfettered weed. And cigarettes, if they do kill, take decades to do so. Kinda dull.

[@bonbonbonbons]

This thread just reads like that one scene from Dragnet lol

[@danielweiss4498]

​@@supernintendo182 Smoking marijuana is practically as dangerous as smoking tobacco because the combustion effect occurs as soon as you burn something these highly toxic poisons are created

[@LetsGoGetThem]

You make a good point, ban those too with the exception of the "wanton sex ads" w/e that is.

[@davidwhitney1171]

I had just turned 13 years old, New Years 1971. I remember watching this very broadcast, especially the 'Phillip Morris" spot which was always hysterical. By then I was, and remain to this day, a confirmed non-smoker (my mother was recovering from larynx cancer as a result of years of heavy smoking and had to learn how speaj without a larynx), which only confirmed my hatred of smoking. Nonetheless I had to fight off a whole lot of peer pressure to take up smoking, in my teens.... but glad I did....

[@brianarbenz1329]

I'm about the same age and I could never figure out what that goofily attired kid was doing shouting out a cigarette brand. My mom explained he was a hotel bell hop paging a guest. I thought, a cigarette was a guest at a hotel? I soon figured out it was a guest with that name, but I still don't fully get the tie to the selling of cigarettes, or why this kid says the last syllable "reeeeee-iss." I do know this: If I dressed that way and talked like that kid, my friends would have laughed me off the planet!

[@sheriheffner2098]

Both of my parents smoked. My Dad smoked Camels with no filters when I was very small. Then both of them switched to Kent, then Marlboro, Then another. Plus my Dad would chew tobacco on top of cigarettes. He would also every day have that disgusting mucus cough and cough that disgusting crap out if his lungs every stinking day on our way to school. My mom would smoke while holding our dog or cat. He stopped smoking after his first heart attack. But still chewed. After his second heart attack his doctor told him to stop tobacco altogether. My mother still smoked up until 1995. He died from Lung and Kidney Cancer in 2012. She suffers from COPD, plus she has asthma. She won't use the Nebulizer she pays to rent every month and she wheezes and coughs. I 've had Asthma all my life. I remember the whole house reeking of cigarette stink. All you could smell was smoke and I know our clothes stank of it. I stayed sick all the time as a child. All from those damn cigarettes. My sister is a heavy smoker, my niece is a heavy smoker. Her oldest son is a heavy smoker. I mean in and on it goes. I'm GLAD I never started smoking. I remember one time moms doctor asked her why she smoked. She told him " To help me lose weight." Well she stopped smoking like I said but she's 79 but looks like she's about 85. I hate to say that about her, and she just gets thinner and thinner and more and more wrinkled. She used to take care of herself, she kept her face younger looking. Bit now she just stopped doing everything since she turned 79 in December. She quit driving, going to church.

[@orbyfan]

@@brianarbenz1329 How that loud, annoying whiny voice managed to sell anything is a mystery to me.

[@anthonythomas6593]

Aren’t you so special and virtuous?

[@robinsss]

@@sheriheffner2098 the fact that the cigarette companies never complained or sued over the ban is insane !

[@edkretchmer2167]

I need a smoke after watching these ads

[@Bruno-qh2kh]

So have one, l did..... .

[@hokage1997]

i need a vape

[@deez8202]

bro isnt that what these companies and corporations want you to do?

[@Strider778]

🚬❤️

[@salvadorcastillo6201]

😂

[@bettyswunghole3310]

I half expected Dyan Cannon to light up a health-giving cigarette as she was taking her walk!😆

[@Nunofurdambiznez]

LOL I kept waiting for that too!

[@StudioZ7]

And she was a smoker in those days too. At least, she smoked up a storm in "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice."

[@timfahey7127]

Can you imagine if they showed her going down the slide with a lit one dangling from her mouth.........right into the pool. Ha

[@mxbx307]

Dyan Cannon is still alive and will turn 88 years old on January 4th. She would have been around 33 when this was filmed.

[@stephenguppy7882]

The most sensible thing I ever did was to stop smoking twenty years ago.

[@lamontyaboy718]

Great for you. I've never smoked in my life and have no intentions to. Former smokers that have quit and say there are much better off for it convince me I'm not missing out on anything great so I will keep not smoking.

[@TheDrewThornton]

I regret quitting

[@TheSMR1969]

​@@TheDrewThorntonyour lungs won't

[@pinedelgado4743]

Good for you, Stephen!

[@thelasttaarakian]

@@lamontyaboy718 smoking is great. Its just terrible for you.

[@brennonguilbeau569]

Love Lee Marvin's gravelly voice to bring home the point!

[@thiagoflorindo2849]

In Brazil, cigarette advertising was only banned from TV in 1999, having peaked between 1971 and 1994. The most famous advertisements of all were those for Hollywood cigarettes, which featured extreme sports, paradisiacal environments and rock 'n roll in the commercials. Hollywood cigarettes also promoted rock festivals, being the only Brazilian company to be able to put on a Nirvana concert in 1993.

[@mjpthetrucker9485]

Country smokes less than ever yet we have more obesity, cancer and mental decline than ever before. Tobacco definitely has its risks but I think our diet is a much bigger killer. Hard to deny.

[@dforrest4503]

I agree with that. The relationship between the decrease in smoking and the increase in obesity is remarkable.

[@broederbond60]

The tobacco companies agreed to the ban, which otherwise would not have been constitutional. No other legal product is banned from broadcast advertising.

[@galewinds7696]

Booze is legal, they don't advertise on tv

[@broederbond60]

@galewinds7696 I don't watch much TV, but I have certainly seen liquor ads.

[@MirzaAhmed89]

Plenty of things are banned from the public airwaves. It doesn't violate the First Amendment, according to the Supreme Court.

[@broederbond60]

@mirzaahmed6589 what legal product?

[@EdwinCage-jf3sd]

​@@galewinds7696self imposed ban. Not law

[@randyrogers8568]

My grandfather told me that when he was a kid in the 1890's everyone knew smoking was bad for you.

[@Attmay]

Yes, but their understanding of why that is was limited.

[@rongendron8705]

My grandfather was born in 1883 & told me that they sold cigarettes, loose, before 1900 for 5 for a penny! That would be equal to $.04 a pack! No wonder everyone got 'hooked' at a young age!

[@drpoundsign]

@@Attmay Perhaps. Many Coaches, however, told their Athletes that "cigarettes steal your wind."

[@drpoundsign]

Cigarettes were part of GI rations for a Long Time. That's how WW2 Vets got hooked.

[@icecreamforcrowhurst]

I recall a character in Crime and Punishment (1860’s?) talking about smoking being unhealthy.

[@GRosa250]

When I was about 15 years old (mid 1980’s) I had a friend who’s mother worked for Philip Morris. She would get free cigarettes from them and there were boxes of them stacked in her garage. One night my friend and I went into their garage and stole two boxes each. I took the ones that had Parliament Lights in them and I think there were at least 10 or 15 cartons in each box. My uncle smoked that brand so I gave them all to him. In 2009 he was diagnosed with lung cancer and died a year later. Sorry Uncle Louie

[@randolm7698]

Many moons ago I worked for a company that had a site near Richmond, VA (the old Philip hq). Visiting I was told about this. I forget the details but if memory serves each employee got 2 cartons per pay period... guessing this was weekly. The employees that didn't smoke sold them - it was basically considered bonus pay. On a related note I played hookie one day on one of the visits and spent the day touring civil war sites in the area - it was incredible. Any American history buff has to have that visit on their bucket list.

[@TheDrewThornton]

You killed your uncle

[@thekernel69]

@@TheDrewThorntongod damn what the fuck is wrong with you for saying that to a person go outside and touch some grass

[@dangerouslytalented]

they used to give them to doctors, actors, anybody who had any kind of influence. And if kids stole them and passed them around in school, that hooked those kids for life. They cost almost nothing to make, it's all profit.

[@randolm7698]

@@dangerouslytalented I rember when gas stations sold them in front of the counter - not on the counter, but below the counter right at the eye level of children and right next to candy bars. It was basically baiting curious kids to pocket them. I'm sure it was the tobacco companies that gladly covered the loss - a few cents to land a future lifelong customer. Pretty disgusting when you connect the dots.

[@devonmitchell5294]

I would have turned 6 years old, November 1970. I remember the Marlboro Man riding his speed riding his horse on the Marlboro commercial. I remember the Virginia Slims commercial "You've come a long way baby" lol. I remember the Parliament commercial with a shot of the Big Ben and the bridge. Lol. My early childhood :)

[@nsnopper]

Thumbs up for the Partridge Family commercial and Dyan Cannon taking a walk.

[@MichaelIrish]

My wife and I quit on October 5th, 2020. Very meaningful.

[@pinedelgado4743]

Good for you BOTH!! :) :)

[@TEXASLOYAL]

Nobody likes a quitter

[@mxbx307]

Quitting smoking is really easy. I've done it hundreds of times.

[@DefeatedMelon]

​​@@mxbx307 "hundreds" right...

[@coolworx]

Lee Marvin sold me with Pall Mall's bi-directional ignition. 1:57

[@ocstrangeness]

I instinctively snapped my fingers at the winston jingle. Should also mention I'm only 42.

[@JohnWilson-wg4gk]

Well...Winston tastes good, like a cigarette should. You should come to where the flavor is....

[@BeingRomans829ed]

"In those days it was assumed that women were somehow finer creatures than men". And feminist brains go into "total confusion and perplexity" mode trying to figure out if they should love what he said or hate it.

[@asmodeus0454]

It was no lie: Winstons did taste good like a cigarette should! Loved 'em! They can bury my lungs in a North Carolinian tobacco field.

[@jec1ny]

Lee Marvin died aged 63 from heart failure. He had been in very poor health the last few years, almost certainly the result of a lifetime of heavy drinking and chain smoking. At least five actors who played the famous role of the Marlboro Man died of cancer or emphysema. Several others suffered from poor health suspected to have been caused by smoking and died comparatively young.

[@Chimp981]

Funny you should include alcohol in that statement, as more people than ever before are dying from obesity, alcohol poisoning and popcorn lung and a lot of them are young too! 🤡🥱🙄

[@EdwinCage-jf3sd]

And also I know people that smoked all their life and didn't die of cancer it's more of a genetic thing

[@jec1ny]

@@EdwinCage-jf3sd Statistics suggest otherwise. I've known quite a few lifelong smokers. All but one either died from it or have health problems that could be connected to smoking. The one exception fell off a roof he was working on so I can't blame the cigarettes for that.

[@EdwinCage-jf3sd]

@@jec1ny so what do you think if you don't smoke you don't die?

[@jec1ny]

@@EdwinCage-jf3sd We all have an expiration date. But if your looking to check out early, there are faster, cheaper, and far less painful ways of committing suicide than smoking.

[@johnnyballenatl]

At the time, Alaska and Hawaii got their network shows up to _three weeks_ after they were broadcast in the Lower 48/mainland; after the ban came into effect, whatever remaining cigarette ads were replaced by local commercials.

[@texaswunderkind]

Last night I was at the grocery store with my teen daughter. She went into the restroom, and I stood for a few moments next to the locked cigarette shelves. I was shocked at the packaging for cigarettes. It all looks like candy, or maybe Pokémon cards. Anything but cigarettes. They are still obviously targeting children in their marketing. My aunt just died of lung cancer, and she never smoked a day in her life. But her husband was a heavy smoker for 30 years.

[@kwantoon]

Apparently you didn't visit the part of the store where alcohol is packaged and marketed the same way. I guess that's different though, right? I love how people will vilify smokers and cigarettes and completely gloss over the fact that alcohol is utterly terrible and does tremendous damage to those who drink it and many that just happen to come in contact with those that are degenerate drunks.

[@cursorguy]

@@kwantoonwhataboutism. Where did they even mention alcohol let alone say it’s good for you?

[@jerseygirl2811]

Did he smoke around her?

[@SK438]

​@@derfroschprinzausbayernJust admit you're an addict and move on.

[@doefarris2189]

​@@kwantoonif you drink some alcohol at home, you're only damaging yourself, but if you smoke, the people around you are stuck breathing it in and having it stick to their clothes and making them and their stuff stink.

[@longagoandfaraway7868]

I always thought it was criminal the way the old cigarette ads would go out of their way to paint smoking as a healthy habit. Camel ads claiming more doctors smoked their brand than any other. Or even Newport's "Alive With Pleasure" ads. The worst was Kent touting their supposedly superior "micronite" filter that actually contained asbestos.

[@LawWonderTV9]

So that's how people contracted lung cancer. Those damned cigarette butts and the asbestos in 'em!

[@Aircalibur]

Well, plenty of doctors did claim that smoking was healthy. Money makes people say a lot things they shouldn't.

[@Just_another_Euro_dude]

Well i thought fake advertising was/is illegal? Maybe not in those days? Maybe the laws regarding that are newer. Anyways, humans are trash. Just in general. Buyers AND sellers.

[@beth1627]

I love the, "take a walk", commercial. They should bring this type of commercial back again.

[@doefarris2189]

Went from "take a walk" to "touch some grass."

[@AMPProf]

Yes but sell what??

[@beth1627]

@@AMPProf Maybe walking shoes or just encouraging exercise.

[@manidig]

It's not a commercial. It's a PSA (Public Service Announcement). Like most anti-smoking campaigns were and still are.

[@LawWonderTV9]

That's surprising. This was the first time I saw that from the American Heart Association. I actually liked the PSA. Catchy tune playing throughout, hot babe from the '70s, nice sounding announcer guy. It's a Helluvalot better than the Canadian PSA called Don't Put it in your Mouth from the '90s.

[@JMG1TEX]

Quit smoking 12 years ago. Now the smell of cigarette smoke makes me gag.

[@BarcelonaChill]

Same. I do, however,.like the smell of smoke between my comics pages that have come from a smokers home.

[@picklerix6162]

My mother-in-law would become deathly ill whenever she inhaled tobacco smoke. She had stopped chain-smoking after she was diagnosed with emphysema.

[@ryanmorrison3699]

That’s some Clockwork Orange sh*t right there.

[@TEXASLOYAL]

Nobody likes a quitter

[@D00DofSilver]

Only tried a cigarette once in my life and didn't like it. Smell of cigarette smoke makes me feel nauseated and aggressive.

[@DavidFell]

I believe the Dick Goldberg mentioned by Harry Reasoner as producer of this piece is the same fellow that hired me at WLS-TV in 1982. I’m still there.

[@johnsciara9418]

In 1993, the local Omaha radio station asked when the last cigarette commercial aired. While I was calling in, others were making guesses as to when that happened. When I was connected to the DJs I stated Jan 1st 1971 and the DJ mentioned that it didn't sound like a guess. I can't remember how long before this question came up that I had seen this in print, but I generally can recall many things that I read in print. Can't remember what the prize was

[@sleeperno1215]

Surprisingly, while we have no more cigarette ads, we do advertise and encourage the consumption of hard liquor. Alcoholism is rampant and deadly.

[@TheBrooklynbodine]

Back in the '50s, there were TV ads with DOCTORS (or actors portraying them) endorsing particular brands of cigarettes.

[@retroguy9494]

In magazines too. One famous one was for Camel. It was 'more doctors smoke Camel than any other brand' with the M and the D in big bold letters. I remember when I was a little boy back in the '70's some doctors actually smoked right in the exam room. My eye doctor was one of them. I still remember the old roll top desk he had with the ashtray on the end and he would puff away as he examined my eyes. My family doctor smoked a pipe right in the office.

[@TheBrooklynbodine]

I'm not surprised at all to hear those things. Back in the day, you were free to smoke in just about 98% of the places where the spirit moved you. You were even allowed to in college classrooms.

[@retroguy9494]

@@TheBrooklynbodine Yeppers. When I was in college back in the '80's, the 'official' policy was no smoking in classrooms. But the unwritten rule was that if the professor smoked in class, so could we. So I smoked in every class where the professor did! I remember one professor even smoked cigars! LOL

[@TheBrooklynbodine]

@@retroguy9494 I don't think my dad would've lived to be 91 had he kept smoking, and my mom wouldn't be living today. So nice to exchange e-mails.

[@retroguy9494]

@@TheBrooklynbodine Well, you really can't predict those things for certain. I just lost an uncle last year at the age of 95. He smoked from the time he was like 13 until his mid 40's so that was over 30 years. He never had a bit of trouble with his lungs or any kind of cancer. He simply died of old age. And he smoked Pall Mall unfiltered cigarettes as well as a pipe (Half and Half tobacco). It was nice talking with YOU as well!

[@debtshredder4928]

And what has replaced them? Prescription drugs with side effects including de@th, class action and personal injury lawyers and Bud Light. I'd rather have cigarette ads

[@nightrunner1456]

I was like 11 or 12, I walk to the grocery store, to buy cigarette for my sister. Cost 35 cents from a machine, no big deal!

[@Hellodarknessmyolefriend]

Yes I used to go down to the variety store buy smokes for my relatives. Let me keep the change. Bought candy

[@lamontyaboy718]

It will never not fascinate me how children just used to be able to buy cigarettes from the store no questions asked. Yes it was for their parents or adult relative but still that's so crazy to me. What a completely different world that was and wasn't even that long ago really.

[@nickdelaney6953]

​@@lamontyaboy718 I used to buy cigarettes for me and my grandma at a younger age maybe around 11 years old in 1997

[@jimjohnston526]

Anybody remember Brady Bunch and Partridge family back to back on Friday nights?

[@retroguy9494]

I do. I loved the Brady Bunch but I couldn't stand the Partridge Family.

[@jenniferhansen3622]

​@@retroguy9494I still watch Brady reruns. 😄

[@retroguy9494]

@@jenniferhansen3622 I do too sometimes! 😁

[@JasonDelarosa2000]

Maureen McCormick is still hot ❤

[@ricknibert6417]

That was typical Friday in our home.

[@danfarris135]

When my doctors ask me if I smoke, I always reply not anymore. Then they ask how much did you smoke and when did you quit. My reply is I used to smoke 5-6 packs a day, then I moved out of my parents house at 23! It was a different time and it is amazing how myself and my sisters never actually smoked. Everybody else smoked back then. Bad memories of riding in the back seat in the winter huddled in the floor board of the cars with our coats pulled over our heads trying to keep some of the smoke out so we could breath. I dont miss that at all!

[@bb22602]

When they ask me if I ever smoked, I say, "Not on purpose." due to all the second hand smoke in the house until January 1,1970. when my father and stepmother split up and Dad quit smoking. My health improved IMMEDIATELY! You can't tell me that second hand smoke isn't dangerous.

[@brendanjobe6895]

You are telling the truth. I have no recollection of even noticing the smoking: it was everywhere. A person who smoked a pack a day was considered a "light smoker". I had an uncle who rarely smoked at work, but when he got home, those Pall Malls were waiting, and he smoked maybe 5 or 6 every evening. One could light up in hospitals, restaurants, grocery stores, Walmart, clothing stores ... everywhere but church, but the minute they said "amen", many of the men lit up as soon as they got out the door. It was a different time for sure. In some ways, better. In some ways, I prefer the way it was.

[@beth1627]

I actually knew someone who had smoked 5 packs a day. He had ash trays all over the house, obviously. One time he was driving with the kids in the car and blacked out for a moment. He threw his pack out the window and quit on the spot after that.

[@beth1627]

When I was a kid my parents and grandmother smoked. Car rides would be interesting.

[@rongendron8705]

Cigarettes used to cost $.25 a pack, up to about 1965! Then, they started to climb to $.50 a pack by 1968! That's when I said "No more"! I'm glad that I did because I must have saved $100,000. in my lifetime, plus my life, too!

[@stephenpeterson7514]

I was born in 1987 and I swear I remember, as a child, my mom watching afternoon soap operas and seeing Virginia Slims advertisements playing. Strange.

[@MomMom4Cubs]

That's product placement, not commercials. Product placement, even if accompanied by monologue totally unconnected to either the previous or following content, is still within the program. The program tape had to stop and the carts with the commercials in their paid-for places had to start to constitute a commercial. Loopholes are beautiful and exist everywhere in nature.

[@chriskazaam896]

How did they do that w/ cigs in early 90s?

[@JustJohnny]

@@chriskazaam896 Smoking was still in film and television until the Clinton era. You can still see smoking today in film but it'll get an R rating, so most companies avoid it...and when you do see it, it's either cloves or CGI.

[@LawWonderTV9]

@@MomMom4Cubs Hell. Even when filming on location parts of a TV show or a movie in the '70s, you'll see billboards with the cigarette ads on them. For Example: Wonder Woman Season 2 Episode 20. The man who wouldn't tell. Guest star Gary Burgoff as Alan Akroy. In one scene, you'll see him hitchhiking to the airport, but also see a billboard advertising for Decade brand cigarettes. Oh, and also that Mr. Burgoff also played as Corporal Radar O'Riley in M*A*S*H.

[@1lovesgreatness]

Now they advertise hard liquor, deadly pharmaceuticals and gambling on TV.

[@marcmarc1967]

Yep, all just as bad or worse to your health, family, and society as a whole.

[@pony053]

and as I've often argued....THE ADS SAY PELL MELL, not PALL MALL, glad that settles it!!! Thanks for posting this piece of history....sadly they drastically cut short dad's life(camel's)....so much for second hand smoke, mom made it just short of 100. Heaven knows she breathed in plenty for a non smoker!

[@KB-ke3fi]

Yeah that worked well...smoking increased by 275% after the government started regulating stuff.

[@coolworx]

Holy crap.... 5:00 I remember this ad from the heart association. Not by accident that this ran during this segment. This was back when our institutions actually served us.

[@easternyellowjacket276]

Back then, we had institutions. Utilities and airlines were heavily regulated, too. And there used to be mental hospitals. All of that and the benefits to our citizens is gone now, thanks to Republicans.

[@i.l.l.l.l.]

Weird how they never banned beer or liquor commericals even though alcohol is significantly worse for your body and for society at large than nicotine

[@tommyfu9271]

no shot.

[@Robert-zc2cc]

I've wondered that too. 35%-50% of murders and suicides are committed by people with alcohol in their system, lots of rapes and sexual assaults, people killed by drunk drivers etc..

[@billdinkel9234]

Harry Reasoner smoked even after having a lung removed and eventually died of lung cancer too

[@ketrin-fz8be]

Cigarette commercials were banned on British TV in 1965 (ten years after commercial TV began), although some of the offshore pirate radio stations continued to carry cigarette ads until 1967.

[@halfbakedproductions7887]

There were tobacco adverts in cinemas for ages afterwards as well. The axe finally fell in 2003 when it was banned in print media and billboards.

[@levinolan636]

I smoked from 15 to 22. I must admit i loved it. The smell in the autumn,winter . Smoking on Christmas morning. I never believed it was bad for you. I quit because i knew 7 years into it that it was not healthy. Too bad bc it sure was enjoyable. Thats why so many did smoke. Was part of our culture.

[@halfbakedproductions7887]

Yep, people say "smoking is so gross" but I didn't feel like it was. I really enjoyed it and if it wasn't so catastrophically expensive and horrifically bad for you, I'd probably still do it.

[@IamSkyeOrion]

Every anti-smoking or anti-vaping commercial that comes out today is an advertisement for smoking and vaping.

[@DefeatedMelon]

Big tobacco makes em cringe on purpose lol.

[@LogoAttitude]

Now we need to ban alcohol ads.

[@toddwacha5108]

I wouldn't mind walking with Dyan Cannon sometime. Also, ironically, that segment about the American Heart Association came at the end of the segment about the last cigarette commercials on American TV. I wonder how many of you caught that ironic closing.

[@Melissa0774]

The thing I find ironic about these commercials is how the train conductor who's yelling Philip Morris! says it in a weird way that makes her sound like how people sound when they have one of those electronic voice box things they have to get when they have their larynx removed.

[@Nunofurdambiznez]

She's an old lady at this point.. would probably give you a few whacks up-side your head with her cane!

[@IssanCaliRefugee]

@@Melissa0774 God it's annoying. I can't understand why it's regarded as such an iconic classic commercial.

[@brendanjobe6895]

@@IssanCaliRefugee LSMFT was annoying, too. I bet at one time, 99% of the American public knew what it stood for. "Lord, Save Me From Truman" .... "Loose Straps Mean Falling Ti*****."

[@drpoundsign]

She was a mediocre actress.

[@apalboi1985]

nixon was dumb for banning commercials. theyd be so good today

[@Theultrazombiekiller]

My neighbor is 94 years old and she still lives independently. Her husband died of a stroke at 87. I can't make this up, but that woman smokes a pack of UNFILTERED Camel's every single day still. She has for 60 years and it never effected her health. She never got any lung disease, heart disease, cancer of any sort etc. Not only that, she drinks a glass of whiskey every single evening, even still at 94. I see her working on her flower bed, just puffing away on an unfiltered Camel from the soft pack in her shirt pocket nearly every day.

[@therealhardrock]

That doesn't change the fact that my grandfather died of lung cancer at 63. Just because one person beat the odds doesn't mean that cigarette smoking is safe. Also, those people in those anti-smoking ads who sound like robots aren't just acting.

[@anthonythomas6593]

It also doesn’t prove that non smokers won’t die at age 63 from diabetes caused by overeating and high anxiety levels because they are so worried about second hand smoke

[@therealhardrock]

@@anthonythomas6593 You're grasping at straws.

[@jamesedwards282]

Cough...Cough...Pass...

[@akrenwinkle]

@@therealhardrock My favorite pro-smoking argument: "We're all gonna die anyway." Sure... it's quick and painless for everybody, so do whatever you want.

[@emmgeevideo]

Ah yes, just like Archie Bunker used to sing, "When goils were goils and men were men..."

[@Hellodarknessmyolefriend]

Even had the Flintstones pushing cig ads back then

[@shoredude2]

I was born in 1971 so I don't remember cigarette ads on television. But I do remember the print ads for cigarettes in magazines.

[@robinj.9329]

Who could have imagined back then that today, 50+ years later, we would be treated to the ads from POT SHOPS, and Bongs!?

[@johnharris3362]

At least we're starting not to treat people who enjoy smoking a little weed like criminals.

[@paulsolfelt8452]

I remember watching the flintstones cartoon and there cigarettes adds when I was a kid eating breakfast before I had to go to school, I was in the first or second grade , the flintstones were on at about 6:30 in the morning or so in 1969 or 1970 about ,lol , I also remember other cigarette ads like Benson and hedges and Marlboro, Salem , Virginia slims e.c.t the flintstones only did Winston cigarettes. ! this is also when the adds were transitioning from black and white to color so the last cigarette adds in 1970 were in color, ! even into the 90s watching football on tv lit Billboards in the background Advertised cigarettes ,lol !

[@okee63]

Smoking is the single most detrimental thing you can do for your health

[@dave46459]

So is drinking!!!

[@Js-te1sg]

You are 100% wrong

[@69eddieD]

Smoke buds.

[@DostoyevskyTolstoy]

I think I might prefer to huff paint and do shots of cough syrup. With a tide pod as a chaser!

[@beth1627]

I was a kid but I remember this well especially after you never saw these ads anymore.

[@pronemanoldbutyoung5548]

Very nice knowledge 🙂 I didn't realize it all (luckily) ended as early as 1971. I was born two years later. Luckily my mother didn't smoke during the pregnancy.

[@retroguy9494]

Well, my mother DID smoke during the pregnancy. As well as drank coffee. Almost 59 years later, and I'm still here!

[@jenniferhansen3622]

​@@retroguy9494I'm glad there were no pregnancy complications or side effects from the smoking.

[@retroguy9494]

@@jenniferhansen3622 Nope. None. I was even born a month late! The only 'complication' was that I was born with a hematoma on my head because they gave my mother a drug to induce the labor and it was from my head pounding against her, I guess, pelvic bone. But that wasn't related to smoking of course.

[@arthurwatt5162]

These tobacco companies took so many lives. Can't even calculate.

[@gloomyvale3671]

All comes to choice, even if they say something is good for you and looks cool it’s still up to the individual.

[@kris78787]

​@@gloomyvale3671 then they should be honest in these ads and show people on oxygen tanks suffering from COPD and cancer

[@JDSly1]

"I love the smell of a good cigarette." ( 0:36 ) A statement I have literally never said and never heard. A good quality pipe tobacco smells pleasant, but cigarette tobacco was always the bottom of the barrel stuff. How I smoked those nasty things for 20 years is beyond me. Glad I quit in 2001.

[@mikemiller659]

As I posted above my Dad died in 72 from smoking winstons, he was 44 . Great to hear you are still with us.

[@JDSly1]

@@mikemiller659My condolences, Mike. I lost my dad when I was eleven in 1976 (not smoking related) so I know what its like to lose a parent at a young age. I had a close friend pass away from lung cancer in 2007, at age 54. He was never able to quit, although he tried numerous times. I'm almost 59 and still in good health. Marlboros were my cigarettes of choice, but all of them are harmful.

[@WindowsGG]

those random commercials: buy cigarettes now! buy cigarettes now! buy cigarettes now! buy cigarettes now! buy cigarettes now! 1971: i'm about to end there whole carrer

[@halfbakedproductions7887]

Reminds me of Family Guy. Smoke Smoke Are you smoking yet?

[@WindowsGG]

@@halfbakedproductions7887 uh is that an actual gag? because you said it reminds you of family guy so uh, what season/episode is it from?

[@keithbessant]

What a beautiful video. I liked the ad for the Partridge Family and the one that recommended walking and exercise. I wonder if cigarette ads would be banned if we were in that situation nowadays. The priority for business to make profits seems unstoppable.

[@tstahler5420]

I didn't start smoking until November 21, 1985. TV commercials had 0 to do with it. 😂

[@clarky23]

when i was 10 years old, my cousin and I were out in the woods playing. He had a spot to hide his cigarettes. he was already on half a pack a day by then. He was able to sneak from my Grandma and his mother, each thinking the other was smoking more. He offered me a cigarette and I took my first inhale. Except when you start smoking, you pull it into the mouth, swish it around and let it go. Takes time to truly inhale. But not me, first inhale was a solid, full deep inhale of the cigarette. I felt like my lungs were on fire, I couldn't breathe, I ended up vomiting. I dropped the cigarette, which my cousin yelled at me about. And I asked how can you like that? He called me some names and laughed. That was the first and only time I tried smoking. 46 years later, I'm still the only one in the family who doesn't smoke, have lost one aunt and two cousins to cancer. And the family still puffs one to two packs a day. SMH

[@Flies2FLL]

Good. Disgusting habit, they should make weed legal and tobacco illegal.

[@frankdenardo8684]

On January 1st, 1971. The tobacco companies bought up a lot of airtime for the annual college football bowl game classic. Both college and professional sports were hot spots to sell cigarettes. There was an article in Consumer Reports September, 1969 issue titled "Showdown in Marlboro Country ". That article was about the tobacco companies going to congress and telling them that they are going to stop advertising on TV and radio. In the long run, it was a very wise decision being that children would eventually pick up the habit when watching TV with their parents and listening to 🚬 ads on the radio during a drive in the car.

[@Attmay]

And for the next 20 years, what took their place? Wall-to-wall ads for sugar and beer. And yes, the Flintstones endorsed those, too, along with those hocus-pocus “vitamins” that are just glorified sugar pills.

[@brendanjobe6895]

Notice the "who went to whom". The TOBACCO COMPANIES voluntarily went to Congress and TOLD THEM what they were going to do. It was a wise business decision - one that scared network executives to death. That's why Philip Morris can pay an 8% dividend today. Bring back the TV/radio ads --> lower profits.

[@timr31908]

Last time I smoked I was on fire now I just stick to LSD

[@retroguy9494]

I remember all these brands. My aunt, maternal uncle and step grandfather smoked Pall Mall. My paternal uncle smoked Kool. My mother smoked Winston. I wanted to smoke since I was like 5. When I started in high school, I tried all those old brands but didn't like most of them. They tasted awful. But I DID settle on Chesterfield. The original non filter short ones (they also made a longer 'king size' to compete with Pall Mall). I smoked those until the early '90's when my doctor told me to switch to filter cigarettes and I started smoking Marlboro reds. I then switched to Marlboro lights which I continued to smoke until I quit 7 years ago.

[@brendanjobe6895]

I smoked enough Lucky Strikes to stretch from here (Mississippi) to Maine, but I also smoked Chesterfields, Philip Morris, and Old Gold Straights. None of those are even available today along with unfiltered Kools, Raleigh, Viceroy. The next one to go will be Lucky Strike. It's like the company is doing everything it can to get people NOT to smoke them.

[@fordtruxdad5155]

Haha! I also smoked those Chesterfield regulars for a long time! I saved and saved all those coupons that came with them. Then they discontinued the coupon program before I could ever redeem them! I've still got them stashed away somewhere.

[@retroguy9494]

@@fordtruxdad5155 LOL I used to save the coupons too! I don't think I ever cashed them in either! Then when I switched to Marlboro, I saved all the 'Marlboro miles' and gave them to my father (who HATED smoking). He'd get himself jackets, pants, hats and all sorts of other items.

[@halfbakedproductions7887]

I used to smoke Pall Mall Red king size. They had terrible reviews but I really liked them, they tasted more smooth and natural than some of the other brands I'd tried (including Marlboro). Marlboro Gold (used to be Marlboro Light - but the term "light" was banned because it implied safer) are a hugely popular brand in the UK, it's the safe default if you don't know what you want, but they just tasted like chemicals to me and I never got the appeal. Reds were a bit too harsh and unrefined for me.

[@eriksmith6873]

Holy cow. It is so strange to see an old clip from a network news show of 53 years ago -- and realize I saw it when it aired live. I was eight years old. I remember the anchor mentioning cigarette ads would be banned starting tonight -- so it was Harry Reasoner on ABC! But what I really remember was that montage of old cigarette commercials, starting and ending with that weird little man in the bellhop costume, shouting "Call for Phillip Morris" in a near-unintelligible fashion. "Was that really a commercial?" I asked my parents. My mother answered yes. My father said, "Those are the last cigarette commercials you're going to see -- and that's a good thing."

[@ShatnerMethod]

Great story!

[@sappersteel532]

Yeah, they're long gone but let's keep on pumping out those alcohol ads while states line up to make pot legal. Soon the mary-jane ads will be plastered everywhere. But thank God we got rid of those pesky little cigarettes! 🙄

[@spicecaptain7279]

Turkiye now is like 1940s America. Smokers are everywhere, each second pedestrian has a cigarette in their hand, both men and women. Most cafes have a thick tobacco fog inside. People smoke inside their apartments, not even on balconies. Men in their 40s always cough, have voices of Donald Duck and look at least 20 years senior than they are.

[@gibememoni]

But theyre happier

[@spicecaptain7279]

@@gibememoni that's true. People here are amazingly happy and cheerful.

[@hellodolly9879]

My father blew smoke in our faces my entire childhood. He never admitted nor did he apologize to his children for endangering our lives. He died of lung cancer. He knew better.

[@BarcelonaChill]

That's nuts. Glad you made it out.

[@MichaelIrish]

Did he beat you like my drunk pos dad did to me and his wife?

[@mattwolf7698]

​@spencez3Guess you love the idea of people being rude and blowing disgusting smelling, cancer causing smoke in your face, you sound and an excellent father /s.

[@imrustyokay]

I love how one of the first ads after this story is a psa for the American Heart Association. Gotta love serendipity!

[@hebneh]

I remember very well how many cigarette commercials got crammed onto TV in the weeks before this ban went into effect. And watching this compilation of cigarette commercials just now, I could sing along with more than one jingle, or recite some of the slogans. These were unavoidable all during my childhood, and nobody thought there was anything wrong with indoctrinating kids with pro-tobacco propaganda pretty much from birth onwards.

[@farklebarkle]

They kept showing cigarette commercials for 3 to 4 more years at least on the west coast.

[@hebneh]

@@farklebarkle No, they did not. The ban on cigarette advertising on radio and TV was nationwide throughout the USA. What did continue for a time, however, were ads for cigars, which included "little cigars" which were marketed like they were bigger cigarettes. One brand put on the market to take advantage of this loophole was Tijuana Smalls.

[@farklebarkle]

@@hebneh kzbin.info/www/bejne/eX6Ze6CLbduAbtk

[@hebneh]

@@farklebarkle If this was actually made in 1975 - which it may or may not have been - it would have been shown in another country where cigarette advertising had not yet been controlled or prohibited, as it had been in the USA.

[@farklebarkle]

I watched the commercials on TV growing up. I wasn't born until 71 we didn't have cable. The article lied. Media is a scam.

[@aaronbruceladner1983]

0:58, What is That Commercial For?

[@siredith8846]

There’s better things to spend your money on than bloody cigarettes.

[@retroguy9494]

Well, with what they cost TODAY you are 100% right. When I started back in high school in like 1980, you could buy 5 packs for $3. Now, in my state, ONE pack is over $10.

[@siredith8846]

@@retroguy9494 bargain! In Australia, ONE pack of 25 today costs $40 (approx US$30).

[@retroguy9494]

@@siredith8846 That IS expensive! Even when you consider most packs here in the States only have 20 in them. Is it the taxes that make them so expensive down under? I DO know things tend to cost more there because a lot of things needs to be shipped in.

[@siredith8846]

@@retroguy9494 Tobacco tax of about A$1.20 per ciggie. Plus we have plain packaging laws. Things are more expensive here, generally because Australians are greedy MFs.

[@Chimp981]

I bet you drink and eat in expensive restaurants where your food is handled by those oh so caring minimum wage people especially for you...🤡🥱🙄

[@2528drevas]

I remember a lot of these. We thought smoking was "cool." Even at 7 we were buying candy cigarettes and pretending to smoke. Fortunately, I fell in love with playing sports and never acquired the habit. When I joined the Army in 1977 I was surprised how often I heard "smoke 'em if you got 'em."

[@CameraNut1000]

My favorite cigarette ads were Benson and Hedges. Benson! Hedges!

[@Crazydad0304]

My dad stopped smoking 10 years ago and has lung cancer now. Glad I never smoked

[@JamesRichards-mj9kw]

My grandfather was diagnosed with lung cancer 33 years after he had quit smoking.

[@BarcelonaChill]

I quit about two years ago along with drinking. I'm glad I did.

[@Petequinn741]

9 out of 10 doctors recommended camels

[@DostoyevskyTolstoy]

For beasts of burden in the desert?

[@uncletony6210]

Murder Inc with a jazzy tune.

[@joepauly2311]

Replaced by the even worse drug company ads.

[@Tomofdahook17]

Once you finally realize what you’re looking at and listening it’s really fucked up.

[@hesavedawretchlikeme6902]

Wow, yes today we are bombarded by big pharma "drug of the week" ads. They target old, young, rich or poor with the latest synthetic miracle that clashes with all the others. Terrible.

[@bobbyhogo2342]

“Diarrhea, and in some cases, death”

[@BonerGrowingPains]

@@bobbyhogo2342 May cause a life threatening infection of the perineum... You can't make this stuff up.

[@thelasttaarakian]

Yeah its funny, we now have an entire industry around giving fat people pills because of their lifestyle choices. No better than cigarettes, except most folks were easier on the eyes back then not being Jaba The Huts cousin.

[@6offdutyninjasN1]

Well the real problem with this being the last TV cigarette ad is the Marlboro man and camel Joe being all over my TV in the early 90s. I saw a thing the other day saying that newports targeted black people and it made me remember all those white preps from Massachusetts on their sail boat in those ads😂

[@beth1627]

I remember this time exactly. I was 9 and sleeping over at my grandparents and thinking no more cigarette ads. Of course I didn't smoke at the time.

[@beth1627]

I actually had already commented I realized.

[@jollyjohnthepirate3168]

I was born in 1965 and just barely remember cigarette commercials on TV. As a former smoker I want one right now.

[@ericsamuelson5656]

My dad always smoked unfiltered cigarettes since he was 13 years old. He smoked 2-3 packs a day and died at age 55 in Dec 1994. Anchor Harry Reasoner was also a heavy smoker and ended up with lung cancer by 1987. Before the USA banned cigarette commercials on TV, the ban started on Canadian TV in 1966.

[@itinerantpatriot1196]

"No stems no seeds that you don't need, Acapulco Gold is...Badass Weeeed."

[@coldcoldheart2424]

Watch the 90’s cigarette ads commercial in the Philippines, the advertisers use American brand names and american models.. i thought its international commercial.. its very nostalgic.. i cN memorize still the lyrics and melodies

[@zigzag2211]

Winston tastes bad, like the last one I had. No filter, no flavor, just a piece of toilet paper.

[@robertmac7833]

I just looked up Lee Marvin’s cause of death. I’m sure the cigs helped.

[@GreatWestern175]

Ironic that smoking is whats killed half of my family even to this day. Fortunately I don't smoke and don't wish to as its a expensive and unhealthy habbit.

[@imonthewinningside8281]

I don't know why this article randomly popped up - or why I was so astonished and amused to see a young Ronald Reagan on it!

[@jpbanksnj]

When America was truly FREE. It's a sad state in the new Nanny Government....