A Wartime Santa

Remember when a carton of cigarettes was a good Christmas gift? Me either. I certainly remember a lot of smoking during the holidays. I remember coming home with smoker's cough from a long Christmas Eve at the grandparents' house at the age of nine. I can remember lying on my back by the Christmas tree, breathing the cool, clear air, and staring up at the fog-bank of second-hand smoke that hung just a few feet above where I lay. It was like being in an episode of Emergency, only without sirens or Randolph Mantooth.

Anyway, the ad's from 1942 - gasoline rationing had just started, the US had just bombed Italy, and there was a long and bloody road ahead before peace would return. But light up boys, you may be dead tomorrow so why worry about a little lung cancer?

The Funnies - Sworn Off Smoking (1915)

How sensitive we feel just after we've sworn off smoking!

Life Magazine, October 7, 1915

Of course the modern e-cigarette addict would be haunted by vacuum cleaners after shedding the vape-ape from his back!

The Naughty List - Phillip Morris (1941)

Just a reminder that Lucy and Ricky were brought to you by that little demon cancer jockey, the Philip Morris Boy. Product placement was a different animal back in the 40's, 50's, and 60's. Your favorite characters would break from the action to pick up a cup of coffee and extol it's value to you or light up a cigarette and tell you how it calms their nerves. Not sure which is worst, a blatant shill or a hidden one.

The Christmas List - Kaywoodie Pipes

The pipe that's more than a pipe...especially after six decades when "woodie" has a whole new meaning. The picture says it all. "No, Don, I don't want to hold your Kaywoodie, now if you don't leave me along you'll be spending Christmas night on the couch."

Tobacco Redeemer

So, a week into the new year, how are those resolutions coming along? Well, it might help to know that for as long as we've been marking time, we've been promising to fix the nits and gnats of our habits and character come New Years Eve. It's also pretty striking that we've been promising to change the same things about ourselves for time immemorial: get fit, get a better job, go out and experience life, or kick bad habit "x".

Case in point, a hundred years ago the Newell Pharmical Company of St. Louis, MO promised to "banish the tobacco habit" with its bupkis cure-all Tobacco Redeemer. So far I haven't been able to find any information on what Tobacco Redeemer actually contained, it may have been heroine for all I know, but I'm pretty sure it didn't cure you of tobacco cravings in 48 to 72 hours. All I can say for sure is that from the time of World War I through the twenties, Newell was plastering every trade magazine with ads for the stuff.

It might be telling that Newell Pharmical eventually became Rubbermaid, producer of trash cans since it looks like they spent the first half of their existence selling garbage.

The Funnies - None of the Vices (1919)

"Your wife doesn't smoke, eh? None of the vices?"

"No, she only drinks and swears."

April 1919, Life Magazine

The Funnies - Special Edition: National Smokeout Day

Out of the Mouths of Babes

"Oh darn it. I've forgotten my cigarettes."

Never mind, Auntie; have one of mine."

Life Magazine, 1922

12 Smokes of Christmas

Since first hearing T'was the Night Before Christmas many of us have probably imagined Santa with a brier pipe held in his teeth as he goes about the business of filling stockings and placing packages under the tree. Maybe that's what makes the eradication of smoking so hard, the ancient attachment and primitive magic of taking fire into ourselves.

Here's hoping your fire burns bright this holiday season and that you and yours gather around it, warm yourselves while you enjoy the company of those you love. Merry Christmas and to all a good night!

12 Smokes of Christmas

Webster Cigars, the gift that says silent loathing. Sometimes a cigar is just a reminder that that nuisance brother-in-law of yours will be staying until New Years Eve.

12 Smokes of Christmas

The oldest of the 12 Smokes of Christmas ads (1915), Tuxedo pipe tobacco promised peace on earth and goodwill to men if you didn't count secondhand smoke-related illness.

12 Smokes of Christmas

A pretty generic Pall Mall ad from 1953 - Christmas red, ribbons, holly, bow, and denial.

12 Smokes of Christmas

Does this mean they are actually transforming into Chesterfield cigarettes? A neat trick, but I'm not sure it's a selling point!

12 Smokes of Christmas

Wrapped for Christmas, no less. I wonder if that refers to the Santa cigar box shown in the ad.

12 Smokes of Christmas

You've seen the organ grinder's monkey outfit, well here's Philip Morris' version. Something tells me this kid has the voice of Peter Lorre and the mannerisms to match. Just try imaging Lorre delivering the tagline from this ad without getting the creeps.

12 Smokes of Christmas

Possibly the oldest ad in our 12 Smokes of Christmas journey, this Murad piece shows us what Santa did after kissing mommy. Kind of gives a new meaning to the tagline "what could you enjoy more this Xmas than Murad?"

12 Smokes of Christmas

And we thought typographic shorthand like LOL and ROTFL. Almost seventy years ago Lucky Strike came up LSMFT, all that and a holly wreath.

12 Smokes of Christmas

I'm not sure how effective it is to say, "hey, at least we don't cost more than the other guy's cigarettes...", but that was Fatima's angle. The only thing holiday about the "smart carton" Fatima came in was the red bow and holly leaves, then again a Christmas ad shilling cigarettes made from Turkish tobacco that bear the name of the daughter of the prophet Mohammed...well, you're probably on shaky ground to begin with.

12 Smokes of Christmas

Something tells me the kind of discrimination this lady's into isn't the sort one associates with good taste. Though this ad dates to the 50's, you'll notice that the cigarette pack touts Tareytons as cork tipped. The cork filter dates back to the early twenties, at the time making Tareyton's smokes a throwback to grandpa's cigarettes. Love the tagline, "there's something about them you'll like". They aren't sure what, but surely there's something!

12 Smokes of Christmas

Old Gold, for a treat instead of a treatment. What the heck does that mean? Well, for one it marks the beginning of the recognition smoking causes health problems. For decades afterward cigarette manufacturers would engage in creative language to disguise or deny the detrimental effects of smoking. They'd put out low tar, light, and even ultra-light cigarettes while simultaneously engaging in a program of obfuscation to protect their billion-dollar industry. But hey, Merry Christmas!

12 Smokes of Christmas

Camels in a carton...and Prince Albert in a can! Let 'em out!