I'll have what the poodles are smoking
Old Gold cigarette ads regularly puzzle me. They resort to some of the most surreal associative images of all the 50s ads (LOOK! WE'RE NOT TALKING ABOUT NOT CANCER!). This has to be the strangest so far though:
The attempted sleight of hand is just so bad. The cigarettes come in two sizes; fine--put some cute dogs in there to illustrate the sizes!
And show the dogs smoking, because everyone loves dogs and they wouldn't do anything bad!
And make them French poodles because . . . well, because we know they come in different sizes!
And juxtapose the terms "treat" and "treatment" to make people mad at those other cigarettes that remind you smoking is bad for you!
And tell people they can "take comfort" in the fact that Old Gold has been selling tobacco for a long time. Clearly, since no one has ever died of cancer, this proves the product is safe.
Whatever the creators of this ad were smoking at the development meeting, it wasn't tobacco.
posted by Susan @ 8:27 AM
2 Comments:
Looks like the mom poodle showing her little one how to smoke - lovely!
What a bizarre ad...they had LOADS of cigarette ads in those old magazines. In fact Newsweek was all liquor and ciggie ads.
The women's magazines seemed to limit vice ads to cigarettes and beer. Lots and lots of beer. But you were only buying it to keep your husband and his poker-playing buddies happy.
I recently found out (I forget how) that Americans drank so many martinis and cocktails in the 50s because the French wine industry had been devastated by the war and the California wine industry hadn't gotten off the ground yet. I wonder, if people had been drinking more wine and less booze, would the food have been better also?
Post a Comment
<< Home