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Vintage Cigarette Ad Exhibit Opens at NYPL

After his mother died from cancer, Dr. Robert Jackler of Stanford University worked through his grief by searching out print tobacco ads from the '20s through the '50s. Appearing in publications like Life and the Saturday Evening Post, the ads featured such cigarette-smoking luminaries as Rock Hudson, John Wayne, Joe DiMaggio, Ronald Reagan, and Santa Claus. And of course there were plenty of models hired to pose as doctors and dentists for ads with slogans like, "38,381 Dentists Say, ‘Smoke Viceroys.' They can never stain your teeth." Because if it was only, say, 38,300 dentists, nobody would have bought it.

Now Dr. Jackler's vast digitally restored collection is on display through December at a free exhibit called Not a Cough in a Car Load: Images Used by Tobacco Companies to Hide the Hazards of Smoking. At turns hilarious and dismaying, the exhibit is open through December 26th at The New York Public Library's Science, Industry and Business Library's Healy Hall (188 Madison Avenue). And there are a lot more from Dr. Jackler's collection online here. All in all, it makes for a fitting compliment to our current Mad Men fascination.

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Comments [rss]

  • Mr Mel

    Gee, and I thought I was the only one who knew. I have to wonder how many Gothamist readers thought that was really your picture. Now you

    should change the photo. Perhaps a clown in full regalia or an image of John Wayne Gacy.

  • NannyState

    Ya catch on quick, kid. Myra Hindley, the kindly "Moors Murderer" who snuffed a kid shall be your nanny, my dear.

  • just saying

    ^ ^ LSMFT? Lucky Strike means fine tobacco or Lipo-sclerosing Myxofibrous Tumor?



    And why is your avatar a photo of Myra Hindley?

  • NannyState

    L.S.M.F.T.

  • Think2wice

    The same quacks who birthed babies with forceps, prescribed painkillers for everything, and made circumcisions de rigueur.



    I'm surprised that they didn't recommend that everyone get a lobotomy:



    "That's right Mr. and Mrs. America, nine out of ten doctors recommend you get a lobotomy! It's scientifically proven to improve cognition, control unruly emotions, and suppress subversive thoughts!



    ♫♪

    Get a lobotomy today,

    It's the American way!

    ♫♪

  • Mr Mel

    I think you could use one, I believe you're overdue.

  • robingee

    The 5th ad features Dr. Frank Black.

  • BQE

    oh smitty, you're such a party pooper.

  • smitty

    my grandfather died in 1956 at a young age from smoking unfiltered cigarettes like chesterfield.

  • mrguy

    to be fair, chesterfield unfiltered cigarettes really do taste great.

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