Things were so easy in the past. No one was all in your shit for partaking in vices that were bad for you. They just threw it out there to see if you’d bite. And you did, blindly and blissfully unawares. Ash-stained fingers and all.
The cigarette advertising industry was in full Mad Men swing mid-century, everyone eager to partake, charging on with this happy and carefree self-destruction. And for posterity they left behind sometimes hilarious often gorgeous advertising to sell it all.
Here are 20 of the best cigarette advertisements from the early teens all the way through to the present day. Enjoy the irony and whimsical nature of these great ads from the 20th century.
Dubek Cigarette Company pack design by the Austrian-Jewish-Israeli graphic designer Franz Krausz.
A Norman Rockwell-esque Camels ad, circa 1930. So adorable!
I’m sure the next thing this model puts in her mouth isn’t grapes, it’s a cigar.
Overtly sexual or masochistic? You decide. Circa 1955.
Fancy poem about football and a 150 yard long cigarette. Life is good.
This is a full double page spread. Can you even imagine this nowadays? From Life Magazine, 1961.
“Today I smoke my friends. Tomorrow I smoke the country!” Thanks for the Christmas cancer, Ronald Reagan! (This was also an ad for his then movie, “Hong Kong”.)
Good old Lucky Strikes, keeping former GIs hooked till 1951.
Super hot ad for Tiparillos’ cigarellos. The ad copy is just precious, 1967 (Click to enlarge)
Ah, the glory days of smoking on airplanes. 1974
Because continuing to smoke will allow you to pursue your active lifestyle. 1967
1935, just about the time that tobacco advertisers decided that women would buy just as many cigarettes as men!
Fabulous vintage cigarette ad, circa 1911, France
Dubek cigarettes, another Franz Kraus design.
Bad, bad Santa! Life Magazine, 1936
Manly guys smoke. Didn’t you know? Terrible grammar though. Life Magazine, 1963
Something about vigorous activity and cigarettes that just go together. Life Magazine, 1937
Fabulous design on this, Villemot ad. 1952, Papier à Cigarettes, Maquettes
Soviet-era propaganda art in advertising. Smoke away your communist sorrows.
By the 70s the tobacco advertisers gave up on the taste angle going more for the physical reactions your body gets by smoking. This is the quintessential cigarette romance. From popular Science Magazine, 1972.
Even the 70s hippie hold-outs were done in. Popular Science 1973.
Cigarette ads on bus stops is just mean! Darmstadt, Germany, 2009.
Especially when naked people are added in! Ratingen, Germany, circa 2001.
This translates to “After me.” The albino snake and angel pixel make less sense. 1990 Germany.
Bonnie and Clyde’s favorite brand, allegedly. Late 80s Germany.
*all photos link back to their source
Okay, cigarette smoking is bad for you. Many of these people are already dead. If you feel like you don’t want to die from emphysema maybe make a call to some substance abuse treatment centers and feel better about your future.
Dear friend
If you remember in those days there was beautiful cinema commercial we used to see in 70s in Pakistan. Just before start of every film commercial was shown which was “Mans demand Capstan Cigarette” I think it was made in 3 to 4 countries and in Budapest (Hungry) also.
Kindly upload this again after so many years. last time when I watched that commercial I was small boy and now I am 42 years of age. I am so impatient to see that Commercial again.
God bless on you always
with regards
your friend
sunny
Pakistan
I’ll look for it. Thanks for the comment!