We've Come a Long Way, Baby - April 1, 2008

A peek behind the curtain here at The Spark: Every couple pf weeks, we have a scheduling meeting to pitch upcoming topics. 

When it was mentioned that April 1 is the 38th anniversary of President M. Richard Nixon signing the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act, which banned cigarette ads from radio and television beginning January 1, 1971, some of the younger members of the team looked as though they'd been told that Martians had invaded. They had no idea that tobacco had ever been advertised on the air at all.

We were puzzled by this missing piece of Americana at first, but then realized that most of them had been born after the ban. They had never shared in the fun of seeing Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble sneak behind the garage to enjoy a butt, or watching Lucy Ricardo tell viewers the real way to keep their hubbies happy was to give them a coffin nail. They'd never had to try to disassociate Elmer Bernstein's evocative theme for The Magnificent Seven from its use in pimping cancer sticks.

Now we're not saying that our fellow Spark writers need to develop a better sense of history, but if they start asking who Nixon was, well, let's just say there'll be consequences.

Suggested Sites...

TV Party: Cigarette Advertising on TV - history of television commercials for cigarettes, with plenty of clips. The Cancer Quadrille - Eric Zorn takes a look back at cigarette ads, with even more clips. The Ghost of Cigarette Advertising Past - a Libertarian view of smoking, advertising, and warnings. Harpers: Coffin Nails - a history of cigarette ads, pre- and post-TV. YouTube: Cigarette Commercials From the TV Age - nearly two hours of vintage ads from the age of innocence.