Last TV Cigarette Ads

Factual Questions
1

What year did TV cigarette ads stop running? The answer to a radio trivia question claims it was 1971, but I don’t believe it! Could this be correct?

I was just a tyke knee-high to a grasshopper in 1971, but I clearly remember images of the Marlboro cowboy on the TV! It is so clear, I must WAG it was more like 1980! I mean, the surgeon general’s warning had just started coming out in 1971, wasn’t it (roughly)?

Also, I can clearly recall the Winston jingle on TV how “Winston tastes good as a cigarette should”.
I have serious doubts that jingle stuck with me since 1971!

Anyone have some memories of TV cig ads to share that might help me pinpoint the year a little better?

  • Jinx
2

Check here, it’s all the way at the bottom of the page.

http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/sgr/sgr4kids/adbust.htm

3

The surgeon generals report came out in 1964.

Cigarette advertising on radio and television ended on December 31, 1970.

I quit smoking after twenty-five years on January 4, 1999.

4

I guess it’s true, but I can picture these TV ads as plain as day! Little pitchers have big ears, and a good jingle doesn’t hurt, either!

“I’d like to buy the world a Coke…”

  • Jinx
5

I remember grammar sticklers saying that is what the jingle should have said. What they said was: “Winston tastes good like a cigarette should.”

6

And the last one that ever, ever appeared featured a young Veronica Hamel, who would later go on to fame in “Hill Street Blues.”

7

If I recall, cigars were allowed to be advertised on television for several years after cigarettes commercials were yanked.

Here is a real t.v. commercial for Winston cigarettes. You’ll need ** Real Player** or something similar to watch it. Your gonna shit! It stars The Fintstones!:eek:

http://www.tvparty.com/vault3/flintbig1.ram

8

Does anyone know when the ads stopped in Canada? I seem to remember seeing some too.

9

Winston’s final TV ad campaign address this directly. Someone pointed out their slogan was bad grammar and they’d sing, “What do you want? Good grammar or good taste?”

Robert Klein pointed out at the time that, on TV, you were lucky to get either.

10

Just wanted to show you this link: (takes bow)
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=44363

11

In 1988 the Feds passed the Tobacco Products Control Act, which banned all tobacco product advertising effective 1 January 1989, including, at section 4(2) television or radio advertisement (although it was still possible under section 4(3) to receive foreign transmissions, e.g. American ads on American stations picked up in Canada).

RJR-Macdonald Tobbaco duked it out with the Feds in the courts, and on 21 September 1995 the Supremes struck down the statute because it imposed too heavily on the Charter right to free expression.

Although the statute had been struck down, the Feds (particularly Health Minister Diane Marleau) insisted that if the tobacco companies did not back off, then new legislation would be drafted. The tobacco companies in Canada agreed between themselves to not advertise on radio or television effective 1 January 1995.

In 1997 the Feds passed the Tobacco Act, which through sections 19 and 31 banned radio and television advertising of tobacco products (though again with the trans-border exception). This statute still stands as law.

12

Accckkkk! Make that 1996. The tobacco companies in Canada agreed between themselves to not advertise on radio or television effective 1 January 1996.