oh yes, I remember sitting around the christmas tree watching the grown ups smoke just waiting for the day I could light up too.....then their lips fell off
"You know what I got for Christmas? Oh, it was a banner fucking year at the old Bender family. I got a carton of cigarettes. The old man grabbed me and said, "Hey, smoke up Johnny." Alright? So go home and cry to your Daddy. Don't cry here, okay?"
From the '40s through the '60s, most cigarette manufacturers packaged their brands in special "gift-giving Christmas cartons", the better to increase their sales during the holidays. This particular ad was seen around December 1964 {that's when R.J. Reynolds used the slogan "Camel Time"}.
I live in France now and this country produces most of its own tobacco needs. I've seen regions where a lot of it is grown, and buildings where it is hung to dry. A friend of mine in the States who's smoked for 40 years and "tried everything" to quit, including hypnosis a couple of times, just found out he has early stages of emphysema, so of course he's quit now!
Hank Stohl, used to have a kid's show in Pittsburgh in the '60s. I remember him in another commercial driving his family around at night looking for a motel vacancy; I don't remember what the commercial was for.
I remember free samples of cigarettes given out in NYC well into the '80s. Also, gift packs of variety "fancy" cigarettes, often for business clients. But here's the weird thing -- after getting pneumonia so often, a doctor advised me to smoke 1 organic cigarette per day, no more. I did that for over 25 years & not only did my respiratory health improve, but my asthma disappeared! I smoked five cigarettes per week, one each weekday morning. It was a little hard to find them organic, tho.
I just like watching these because they are from my youth. I only smoke 3 cigarettes a day sometimes and sometimes none. I went from 3 packs a day to 3 cigarettes. I don't totally quit because of weight gain and I really like them now and then. I do roll my own because of the cost. Rolling my own a pack cost about 75 cents.
I hate Christmas lists. That's why I vow to give everyone on my list megacartons of Camels this Christmas, and from now on, until that list slowly grows smaller and eventually goes away.
YES...i remember as a kid my mother buying a carton of cigarettes for an uncle for Christmas. The carton had a santa clause Christmas motif and there was even a promotional cigarette lighter with the companies logo on it etc. OMG everybody smoked back then. You couldn't go to any sort of function or party where the air wasn't just thick & foggy with smoke. lot of pipe smokers back then too.......cigars seemed to be for old men but have made a come back now.
I thought from that little pic on the column on the right that this would be Dick Van Dyke. The cast of the Dick Van Dyke Show used to act in Kent cigarette commercials, including some for Christmas. I have an old VHS with maybe 100 old cig commercials, including about a dozen of those.
I remember in the 1950s my family giving cartons of smokes with a christmas logo on them. The people who they were given to lived into the 1990s. Its not like cigs kill you fast
my great grandfather smoked from the age of 12 till the day he died at 98. he smoked pipes, cigars and unfiltered cigarettes. i started smoking when i was 6 and i'm now 27 and i can outrun my dad who quit smoking 7 years ago and works out everyday. i've gotten camels for christmas too.
Unprocessed tobacco is more carcinogenic than processed.. While I can see why one would think that it is 'healthier' and I use that term loosely, there is more hazard. A process similar to pasteurizing is a must, and would highly recommend looking into it.
@aba607 A lot of people here in France roll their own organic tobacco. I did for years and found it really satisfying. For about 25 years I smoked about a pack per month, maybe. That's the way to go.
Y'know?....I'd keep hoping for those Camels in my stocking every year, but my parents were Salem smokers, so that's what I'd find in my stocking. Okay in all fairness, at least they were giving me a Reynolds Tobacco product, the same company that makes Camels. Still, Salems didn't look good when I was playing Cowboys-n-Indians with my kid pals...so I hadta smoke Marlboros on the sly.......
Yeah, since I typed that, I quit for awhile and cut back. The dentist keeps telling me it was really dumb to finally start smoking regularly about a decade ago, and I know she's right. An annual tobacco chew is said to be a good parasite purger for people who've gone barefoot that year and eaten a lot of raw stuff ... but it's like smoking pot. I'm glad I gave that up years ago. It really wasn't good for me. Thanks for the response.
@elcamino01 you are absolutely right......smoking was considered part of being social. Especially cigarettes and Beer or a mixed alcoholic drink. The only people back then I knew who did not smoke were my parents...and they were considered real wierdos for it. I can remember a friend of my mothers really pressuring her to have a cigarette. It was practically "communist" not to smoke in those days
Not then, it wasn't! Before the state and federal governments put all these taxes on cigarettes, they were rather cheap. My mom, who never smoked, remembered from her father that he could put a quarter in a cigarette machine and the pack would have two pennies in the cellophane! That's about $2.30 per carton in those days, and even at a 10:1 inflation rate, that's still only $23 per carton today! I ran an inflation template on Wikipedia, and in 1952, 23¢ a pack was equal to $1.90 today.
@OldsVistaCruiser Yep. I can remember as a youngster going to the store for my Dad to get a pack of smokes for a quarter. That was about 1966 or 1967. (Imagine a kid doing that now) And I also remember him buying my Grandpa a carton of Pall Mall for Christmas, cuz Grandpa used to roll his own.
@CuteCatFaith I went to the races in Richmond Va. and up until it went from Winston to Nextel, they handed out cartons of Winston's. Now the hand out snuff and chewing tobacco.And they use to say that if you had a cold smoke menthol cigarettes.
Im not sure how it works with chewing tobacco, and if there is a difference. but I know with smoking it, this process reduces the harm. If im not mistaken, its something they figured out in the 50's and has been the standard since. It looks like a big oven or autoclave where they hang the fresh leaves. This is one of the reasons one should avoid the untaxed ciggs from Native Reserves.. Yes they are cheap, but not worth the additional risk. Im 37 now, been smoking sice 13 or 14yrs old : /
@inkey2 Bakers in France are prone to lung cancer from breathing flour. It's a known occupational habit. Most of the victims who die have never smoked. Sinus cancer is typical of cabinetmakers, and people in Alsace are prone to an eye cancer since Tchernobyl.
@MyPersonalVendetta you look up "smoking statistics USA".....or variations on that........you will see that every site tells of smoking in the usa has dropped way down since the 50s and 60s
I stockpile cigarettes because in case there is a nuclear war and the global economy collapses they'll be worth a lot. People will trade fuel and ammunitions for them.
Show your friends you love them - give them a carton of Camels! Easy going taste; yeah, RIGHT!! They were the harshest smokes you could get! Before Marlboro started doing the "Marlboro Cowboy" ads, these were the cigarettes that you smoked to show how rough, tough and manly you were. Yup, nothing shows your manliness like advanced carcinoma.
