Those were the days when all doctors were assumed to be male. Mad Magazine hit it the nail on the head, "Nine out of ten doctors prefer Camels. The other would rather date a girl."
Time and place make all the difference. Today that poster certainly seems absurd, but back then? I have a copy of an old video from the Dumont network. It captures several of the most eminent jazz musicians of the '40s and '50s including Coleman Hawkins on tenor sax, along with JJ Johnson on trombone. I'm not sure of the several other participants. In the midst of they're playing, I mean right there and then during the tune, they are almost all of them sucking smoke. Hawkins plays his solo and takes a few hits. The other do like wise. Go on YouTube and look up any Miles Davis video. He plays his piece and walks off center to take a few puffs.
The point is only that the ad, taken in the context of the times, isn't as ludicrous as it now seems. The behavior may have been.
There was a lot of trust back in those days as we didn't think we would be lied to.
There is a jazz standard "Careless Love" that should be compared to "Loveless Love" as each has the same melody but different lyrics. I have been unable to determine which came first. (Does anyone out there know?) "Loveless Love" is a parody of certain events back in the late 1910s-early 1920s. Louis Armstrong's version includes a line about the Pure Food Law that had then been recently enacted, with Louis somewhat quizically questioning whether pure food indeed needs a law. Now we have a bill pending to give the FDA jurisdiction over tobacco as a drug or drug delivery system. At the same time, the Supreme Court seems to be leaning in the direction of pre-empting drug companies from state courts and the product liability laws of the states on the basis that the FDA has "blessed" drugs and certain medical devices by approving them. Which brings to mind another jazz classic "God Bless the Child." If the drug companies are protected by FDA approvals, who protects the children (and others) from mistakes of the FDA?
By the way, during the early 1940s Lucky Strike Green Went to War. Perhaps the "green" will go into the tobacco company profits if the FDA "controls" and "approves" tobacco. And consider yet another jazz classic: "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes." Blown right in our faces.
I think it was "Old Gold" that used to advertise "Not a Cough in a Carload."
ReplyDeleteThe serious question on economists who smoke is their blowing it out from which orifice.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThere is a lovely collection of these ads at:
ReplyDeletehttp://lane.stanford.edu/tobacco/index.html
Those were the days when all doctors were assumed to be male. Mad Magazine hit it the nail on the head, "Nine out of ten doctors prefer Camels. The other would rather date a girl."
ReplyDeleteSo which is it economists?
Time and place make all the difference. Today that poster certainly seems absurd, but back then? I have a copy of an old video from the Dumont network. It captures several of the most eminent jazz musicians of the '40s and '50s including Coleman Hawkins on tenor sax, along with JJ Johnson on trombone. I'm not sure of the several other participants. In the midst of they're playing, I mean right there and then during the tune, they are almost all of them sucking smoke. Hawkins plays his solo and takes a few hits. The other do like wise. Go on YouTube and look up any Miles Davis video. He plays his piece and walks off center to take a few puffs.
ReplyDeleteThe point is only that the ad, taken in the context of the times, isn't as ludicrous as it now seems.
The behavior may have been.
There was a lot of trust back in those days as we didn't think we would be lied to.
ReplyDeleteThere is a jazz standard "Careless Love" that should be compared to "Loveless Love" as each has the same melody but different lyrics. I have been unable to determine which came first. (Does anyone out there know?) "Loveless Love" is a parody of certain events back in the late 1910s-early 1920s. Louis Armstrong's version includes a line about the Pure Food Law that had then been recently enacted, with Louis somewhat quizically questioning whether pure food indeed needs a law. Now we have a bill pending to give the FDA jurisdiction over tobacco as a drug or drug delivery system. At the same time, the Supreme Court seems to be leaning in the direction of pre-empting drug companies from state courts and the product liability laws of the states on the basis that the FDA has "blessed" drugs and certain medical devices by approving them. Which brings to mind another jazz classic "God Bless the Child." If the drug companies are protected by FDA approvals, who protects the children (and others) from mistakes of the FDA?
By the way, during the early 1940s Lucky Strike Green Went to War. Perhaps the "green" will go into the tobacco company profits if the FDA "controls" and "approves" tobacco. And consider yet another jazz classic: "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes." Blown right in our faces.