Good Friday thoughts

"Pall," in addition to being a verb that means "to become insipid or distasteful," is also a noun meaning "a heavy cloth draped over a coffin." It's a tenuous link to Good Friday, admittedly, but cigarettes and death are so inextricably linked that I think we can run with it. Why you'd use "pall" in the name of any product that produces smoke is beyond me, but these cigarettes have been around since 1899, so what do I know.

You really need to click this image and see it full size to appreciate what it's doing. Pall Malls were for a time the most popular cigarette in America, in part because they were longer than other brands. As niggling doubts about the health effects of smoking began to surface in the 50's, cigarette companies came up with increasingly ludicrous and implausible claims about the health benefits of their brand. Here, Pall Mall is telling us that its longer cigarettes are milder than others because the smoke is filtered through more tobacco before it hits your throat. They also claim that the way they pack the tobacco in their cigarettes filters the smoke better.

Wikipedia tells us that "Pall Mall" was pronounced "pell mell" in its earlier days, but when television ads were pronounced off-limits to tobacco products, people started pronouncing the name "pal mal," because that's what it looks like in print. This Family Circle ad ran in March of 1954; YouTube has a 1955 television ad that features the "pell mell" pronunciation. It also uses the bizarre phrasing "travels the smoke further" to explain how the length of the cigarettes is a benefit. And there's a bonus shot of a woman going slightly nuts after her gentleman friend lights up her Pall Mall for her. I recommend it. It's only 60 seconds out of your life and I doubt you were planning to go to Mass today anyway.