The Very Last T.V. Cigarette Commerical: Tobacco Advertising
In the 65 years since the American Heart Association found much higher death rates from heart attacks among heavy smokers than among nonsmokers — and the 61 years since the surgeon general’s office issued its first report on the harmful effects of smoking — Americans are lighting up less frequently.
A big part of decreasing smoking in the U.S. was the government banning TV commercials for cigarettes. the final televised cigarette ad was broadcast at 11:50 p.m. on Jan. 1, 1971 — 55 years ago tonight.
Tobacco Advertising on Television
Not only was smoking popular with Americans, but tobacco advertising helped drive American media in the 1950s and 1960s.
While the medical world was learning just how big a threat smoking posed for health, cigarette companies spent millions convincing Americans that smoking was fasionable, cool and manly.
Tobacco companies sponsored sports teams and TV shows and paid premiuims for product placement. By the end of the 1960s, tobacco products were the largest product advertisers on television.
Tobacco companies even sponsored animatedshows. Here, Fred Flintstone and his pal, Barney, enjoy a Winston cigarette break.
The Final Cigarette Commerical
In April 1970, President Richard Nixon signed legislation banning cigarette advertising on television.
The ban was to go into effect with the start of 1971, but tobacco companies managed to negotiate one more day of advertising — to take advantage of New Year’s Day bowl games.
The final tobacco ad ever broadcast in the U.S. was for Virginia Slims cigarettes, which ran at 11:50 p.m. on Jan. 1, 1971, during “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.”
The 60-second ad spoofed the women’s liberation movement by showing a Victorian-era women’s choir singing about how they don’t want to vote and they don’t want to disobey their husbands. As they sing, a few of the women surreptitiously take a puff of their cigarettes.
The ad then cuts to a model smoking a Virginia Slim, while modern background vocals tell women they’ve ”Come a long, way, baby!”
The model was Veronica Hamel, who would later be nominated five times for Emmy Awards in the police drama series “Hill Street Blues.”
The loss of tobacco ads — nearly all of which were 60 seconds long — pushed TV executives to sell more of the cheaper 30- and 15-second ads.
