Figure 1.-- Notice the ad copy, "Wise doctor. Wise mother. Fortunate youngster." The doctor is shown examining a boy. He is wearing a striped 'T' shirt and boxer shorts. At least the doctor isn't smopking in the image. And no nasty ash tray in sight. There has always been some flim flam involved with advertising. Potecting the tobacco comapnies has to be the most outrageous effort in the history of advertsing.

Tobacco companies spent huge amounts of money on advertising to dispel the griowing understabnding that cigarettes were a health risk--especially a cause of cncer. The companoes were some of the most common advertisements on TV and in magazines. Cigarette ads seem an unlikely place to find boys clothing depicted, but we see some. I remenmber at the time how I was bothered by my dad's smoking, but knew nothing about the health risk. The R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company adopted the 'More Doctors Smoke Camels' ad campaign in the 1940s and it continued into the early-50s. These ads featured comments like 'More Doctors Smoke Camels than any other cigarette' or even 'Doctors recommend Camels to their patients'. The idea was to create an aura of health to cigarettes. The idea was to use doctors to give the idea of health some credibility and authority by suggesting that doctors and medical professionals in general preferred Camels over other brands of cigarettes. So we see boy's depicted in doctor's offices with doctor's promoting Camel cigarettes. Camel was a major advertiser in the 1950s, I remember a lot of Canmel ads. I think they were superceeded by Marlboro in the 60s. Marlboro was no longer pushing the doctor angle, but Marolboro was pushing the healthy outdoors life style--especially clean air. We now know that company exexutives were very well aware of the health risks.

Created: 18:28 PM 9/10/2023
Last updated: 8:28 PM 9/10/2023