Smoke Gets in Your Eyes

Follow @listofsurprises It Was a Mad, Mad, Mad World

Besides gazing at Don, one of the best parts of watching Mad Men is marveling at the characters' bad habits. Non-stop drinking at the office? Allowing your kids to put plastic grocery bags over their heads? Sexually harassing the daylights out of your secretary? Check, check, and check. While these Manhattanites keep busy chasing skirts, ignoring the help, and hiding scandalous secrets, they like to take the edge off with a seemingly endless supply of cigarettes.

In honor of the chain-smoking ad men at Sterling Cooper, I've compiled some cigarette advertisements from the 1950's and 1960's. For those in the know, Lucky Strike really did use the slogan, 'They're Toasted.'

Plus, a doctor who looks like FDR swears they're fine for you. So, chill.

Looks like someone got carried away on 'Project Runway.' I'm...concerned.

LUUUUCCCY! You've got some 'splaining to do!

Can't afford Space Camp? Ciggs are a good substitute.

For that exotic "British Look"

Ho ho ho no

Baby peer pressure

Bobby told me he thinks your emphysema is just the tops!

Only bridezillas throw lit cigarettes with their bouquet, lady.

My favorite ad of all lets us smoke up with Fred and Barney. Yabba dabba dooo!

Most of these ads come from Stanford University's amazing archive. Check out the full set here. Now where is Sally with my cocktail?

Works Referenced

Elliot, Stuart. "When Doctors, and Even Santa, Endorsed Tobacco." New York Times. 6 October 2008. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/07/business/media/07adco.html

Stanford School of Medicine. "Not a Cough in a Carload: Images from the Tobacco Industry Campaign to Hide the Hazards of Smoking." http://lane.stanford.edu/tobacco/index.html

Wade, Lisa. "Cigarette Ads: Then and Now." Sociological Images. 14 December 2008. http://contexts.org/socimages/2008/12/14/cigarette-ads-then-and-now/