In 1968 when I worked downtown Brooklyn I saw them filming this commercial. The women dressed in the old fashion clothes were marching down the street. Remember this like it was yesterday.
That's amazing!! I love how they got their footage of "the good old days" to playback at the same speed and quality you'd expect from early 20th century newsreels, I always thought it likely was from the actual early days of the fight for women's emancipation! But I do see that the signs tend to all be about various women's issues, including a sign that mentions cigarettes, Lol!
I can’t get this jingle out of my head! So catchy! 🎵”You’ve come a long way baby, to get where you’ve gotten today. You’ve got your own cigarette now, baby. You’ve come a long long way.”🎵. I love it!
The models in the 1960s were so very beautiful! Amazing how this poison was packaged and sold. I smoked Virginia Slims from the ages of 14-15. I quit when my parents made it a regular joke that I smelled as if I hung out at a bar and grill.
I smoked Virginia Slims for 15 years, but I quit cold turkey in 2011 when I nearly died from a pulmonary embolism. Now, watching these old cigarette commercials makes my chest hurt, but they are entertaining. Lol
@@cjturner40 its true that not all cancer is caused by smoking but without it, there would be a lot less cancer, lung cancer especially, probably a good 80-90% less
These ads and the premiums that VS offered were so enticing. I smoked only VS in college and truth be told I loved smoking but quit when my bf said he hated it.
That might actually be a good thing. Smoking rates have actually dropped massively here in Australia over the years. More and more people are quitting smoking because they don’t wanna do further damage to their health. Compare the cigarette trend of the early years to the vaping days of today, where even young teenagers are using fake IDs or stuff to get their hands on a vape. Vaping has these attractive fruit flavours, but they very quickly turn into toxic chemicals when you inhale them. Ridiculous. They should be banned. So as one method of inhaling chemicals into your lungs ends, another one begins, for the next generation, and certainly not in a good way. At least our Australian Government is airing these quit vaping (Quitline) ads on TV, in the hope that they’ll stop the younger citizens of tomorrow from taking up the habit. Sad things are going this way, and I’m talking people who are choosing to vape now, because cigarettes are slowly declining.
@@itsolivier Thanks and they were. At the time I was 11 years old and started sneaking cigarettes, I didn't know until the late 1990s that I was smoking cigarettes regularly since I was two years old in 1964. I have reel to reel tapes of me smoking cigarettes regularly at age three into four years old in 1965. They made me quit at age 10 but I got the same smoking withdrawal dreams repeatedly which made me start sneaking them over a year at age 11.
I smoked💨 Virginia slims at 15, The video & jingle was so cool. I wanted to look like that too. Thank goodness I quit couple years later when I realized it wasn’t so 😎”
At 15, one of my cousins became a carpenter. She's not the butch type, she has long hair and wears make-up off-duty, she is married with a child...but she certainly does not have long fingernails and her hands are large. Still a woman -- but the Virginia Slims ads completely ignored such women.
@@DellaStreet123 - It’s a big deal that Virginia slims ignored women like your cousin.Back then all commercials with women were always tall, thin, sexy, long nails and Slim hands. That’s how they sell their brand. So What!.
I lol'd about the "at 34 years old, she was sent straight to her room" line. It is a shame that women had to go through all of that hassle to have some pleasure. Thanks to Edward Bernays for reducing the social stigma of women smoking. His influence is primary in the acceptance of women smoking cigarettes in public, and we all know how much beauty and art has manifested from that emancipation.
These are the Australian variants of the commercials. I’d have to assume that the TV ad at the end of this video was perhaps 1969-1971, the then-McMahon Government introducing the Government Health Warnings at the end of every cigarette ad aired on TV and radio from 1972 onwards, until they were officially banned on 31st August/1st September 1976. Also note that Colour TV didn’t even come to Australia until 1975.
Whaaaaat, really? That’s crazy. I had no idea, thanks for saying. Makes sense, I suppose, I’m in my 40s and never saw one (New) in my lifetime. Putting a number on it is pretty wild, tho.
11vlyleven it’s an ad because it targets someone to buy it.. almost peer pressure. It’s either buy my product or don’t support women’s rights. Sad that woman had to fight for their rights.. same with anyone but white men.
Absolutely amazing ads. Brilliant but sadly fall under the heading of "evil genius" machinations. I especially love the perfection of the woman's voice over describing the cigarettes. Dear God. It almost makes me want to buy a Virginia Slim and I have never smoked!
These chicks were all hot smoking their Virginia Slims, but my favorite Virginia Slims girl was Veronica Hamel ("Hill Street Blues,'" Joyce Davenport).
I remember looking at Virginia Slims ads as a young child in my mother's magazines and admiring how beautiful and sexy the women models were. The television commercials were a little bit before my time but the models they used were even lovelier and so beautiful and elegant as they posed and smoked.
@@jackwalker4744 thanks Debbie Downer! She posed, choose and enjoyed to smoke, knew it was unhealthy and passed away prematurely. We all have individual choices in life that we must make, and we must all take personal responsibility for these decisions. Everyone knew by then that cigarettes were unhealthy.
Brings back great childhood memories of my single independent mother raising (rearing) two children. Smoking her Virginia Slims while preparing tax returns as a woman accountant. Kind of rare for the 50's and 60's.
Hot classy elegant women that were proud of it. For all you PC a-holes live your life however you want, just allow others the same right. Stay in your own lane.
@@ReplyGuy22345 Tumor cells are formed and appear in the human body regularly. The task of our immunity is to find and destroy them in time. Therefore, even a person who has never smoked can get lung cancer; This means that he has poor antitumor immunity. And smoking is optional. I will say more - the cause of cancer is always not physiological, but psycho-emotional. When smoking, the psycho-emotional failure is transferred to the physiological local area of the lungs. One smoker will develop lung cancer and the other will not. Thus, there is no reason to believe that lung cancer arises from smoking.
With all the negative stuff about lung cancer set-aside this was such a great catchy jingle. Never forgot it and still love it today. My mother used to get a kick out of it whenever it played. She was about 33 and I was about 11 and I remember her, me, and my sister all making Christmas cookies and hearing this song come on the TV. Good memories and good times. It was when men actually sounded like men, and women sounded like women and without any appology from either sex back then, you can detect a distinct hint of an underlying sexual turn on in their voices as they sang it. Imagine that, people being allowed to sound like real people!
Appears to be the Australian version of the campaign. Similar to the US version, but the voiceovers are accented (to American ears) and the cigarettes were more standard sized.
These are the Australian versions of the commercials, with a TV original tacked on at the end. The TV ad is perhaps from 1971, the then-McMahon Government introducing Government Health Warnings for the end of all cigarette advertising on TV and radio in 1972, continuing until 31st August/1st September 1976, when smoking ads were banned on both platforms. Billboards, cinemas and magazines, and all remaining methods of cigarette advertising, continued until the end of 1990.
I love old cigarette adverts. Yes; I do know how dangerous it is, but, from someone who grew up in a media family (everyone was involved in TV film pruction, advertising, etc), I found myself fascinated by the images, and styles. To show how (UN)glamorous smoking truly is, I'd take a spot like this, and after restoring the images, I'd have it play as it did back Iwhen (this is late 60s, I'm pretty sure. US cigarette ads stopped in 72), and just after the close-up of the model, I'd have it imstly cut to her today -however she is. As an aside, I don't mean to knock her, per se, shes just the spots eye candy, but, many people who watch I Love Lucy remember how after that series ended, and The Lucy Show came on, Lucy's voice began to get ...deeper. by the time she did Here's Lucy, she was very deep bass, and THAT 's what smoking did. It also ages you. Personally, I was a smoker, but, I've. Not had one I'm over 10years. I've only used ecigs, and they've saved me before I could have become a older model 'Lucy' 😉.s
How odd: I certainly remember these adverts from when I was 12 or 13 years old, but the cold, cruel irony never struck me till decades later. And besides, the jingle was awfully catchy. But what did you expect from a 13-year-old boy?
.I dont smoke but I will say both my parents smoked and lived into their late 70s.Also all my 9 aunties smoked and and all of them lived into their 80s and90s.All the people who I went to high school with in the 1970s and who smoked are all still alive .Except for a few killed in accidents and such.
@@34airflowAnd coincidentally I am a proud Australian commenting here. Such adverts lasted until 1976 for TV and radio, and until 1990 for cinemas, magazines and all remaining forms of cigarette (tobacco) advertising.
You know what, cigarettes are horrible of course, I'm so glad I never got suckered into that nasty addiction, but I've gotta say, back then they had some great cig. commercials. The advertising folks that thought this stuff up were really creative, really on the ball. They had fine singers, musical arrangements, attractive people, humor, catchy jingles. I miss the cig. commercials from my youth, so long ago. They were amusing. It's nostalgic seeing these. Virginia Slims had a clever gimmick going by conflating smoking with women's lib., they got a lot of mileage out of that. Here's another one of my favorites: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-uKd_-r_OFFQ.html
I bought cigarettes from 1983 to 1988 frequently. I was 13 years old in 1983. I'm glad barely anyone smokes anymore becuase it such a [hard] habit to quit.
My grandma smoked virginia slims menthol all the time. I tried one not too long ago and i felt like complete shit. started getting aches and pains all over. i never had that happen with any other cigarette only virginia slims.
@@34airflowYep, they do have an Australian accent. These are the Australian commercials 100%. The TV ad (B/W) variant is perhaps from 1971, as the Government Health Warnings kicked in from 1972, until the TV and radio ban for cigarette advertising from 31st August/1st September 1976. I am actually a proud Australian commenting here, though timing of this comment may be different if you’re in another country with a different timezone.
This whole thing about smoking cigarettes equaling women’s liberation was the ultimate con job the tobacco industry pulled on women who fooled them into thinking smoking cigarettes would make them more independent and equal to men, but the only thing it did was make women equally susceptible to lung cancer and other smoking related diseases caused by smoking.
Thanks so much for getting these together... I used them for a presentation about “Women’s Lib.” BTW, I’m fascinated by your moniker- do you fancy yourself the Rev. Jones, or did you survive Guyana? I wonder how many people today know the roots of the phrase, “Don’t drink the Kool-Aid.”
You can tell a man wrote that commercial. Slimmer cigarette for a woman's slimmer hands. I've met women with pretty large hands. Maybe to do all the cooking and housework.
They've come a long way, but not long enough to not be called 'baby' or be helped by making the right cigarette for their 'feminine hands'. Hysterical!
@@lazypops3117 What I find ridiculous about those ads is that, right after pointing out how women used to be oppressed in ways that are unthinkable in a modern society, it plunges right into sexism: From using the belittling "Baby" to address the female audience to toying with women's self esteem by showing women conforming to beauty standards pushed by men and telling them they need gendered cigarettes. I strongly feel that equal rights includes the right to make bad lifestyle choices, but cigarettes especially for women...meh.
I just love how insanely patronizing this is lol. But it does prove nothing has changed when corporations prey on these types of emotions to sell a product
It’s not actually! The commercial started with a group of women singing “we don’t want to vote we don’t want to smoke” and then transitioned to a woman in a long dress to a more upbeat version of “you’ve come a long way baby”
They are not. I know because they had modified the song a little by then. They changed the original "you've got your own cigarette now, baby" to "you've got Virginia Slims now, baby"
I love the script. Those were the good old days when a husband could give his wife a severe scolding and send her straight to her room for smoking on the sly in the cellar or the out-house, even though she was 34.
They used to use heroin to detox alcoholics.(1890's. Good funny movie about that called "The Road to Wellville") It would still work pretty good for that as outside of the hazards of overdosing and the discomfort of quitting, opiates do even less damage to your body than cannabis. (well, ok, they cause constipation, but that goes away pretty quick when you stop.) Natural opioids are broken down very easily by the human body. Smoking anything is a little rough on your lungs. My ex's dad was a pharmacist and always felt it would be better to legalize mind-altering drugs so people could buy them cheaply and reliably from a pharmacy, rather than buying them from some street thug who you don't know what you're exactly getting when you buy from them. (You wind up with the street people of my hometown San Francisco has if you do it long enough, though, that's for sure)
Talk about drinking the kool aid. Marijuana is not the opposite of poison. A simple on line search will reveal all of the toxins in MJ. Conned by Big Dopa. Common sense: don’t force smoke in your longs.
Mason Nix.....back when we were given a choice....knew it was "Bad for you" but you could anyway......l did at 11 years old ,never over 10 a day. Was known as FREEDOOM..also your lifestyle......and how many you put, Most my relatives were inactive. Lousy diets. My mother puffed away at 3 packs a day.........ROCK ON TO CHOICE!!🤘🤘🤘
