You are now entering Ad Space, a realm of commercials, brought before us so we might examine how they work, and discuss why we both love and hate them so. So it is written …
The Product:
Virginia Slims cigarettes
The Promotion:
The Pitch:
I am woman! Hear me –*cough* *hack* *wheeze*– … roar.
I was born long after cigarette commercials were banned from U.S. television. So for me, whenever I’ve seen footage of old cigarette ads, it’s always felt like a window into a somewhat alien world. A world where everything was in black-and-white, where all the men wore suits and all the women wore dresses, where the status quo was good and never to be questioned, and where “Gee, whiz!” was about the strongest language you were likely to hear.
So this ad … it threw me for a loop. Unlike all other cigarette commercials I’ve seen, it’s not a product of the uptight 40’s and 50’s, or even the 60’s where, while mores were changing, TV land still mostly clung to the past. No, this is flat out a product of the early 70’s: full color, groovy music and fashion sense, and an effort to climb aboard the Women’s Rights bandwagon.
It seems pretty audacious to use the “you’ve come a long way, baby!” sentiment to sell cigarettes, but, y’know, it’s not incorrect. In the old suffragette days, smoking was generally seen as unladylike, so the fact that society had become more accepting of women lighting up was indeed a victory for feminism (albeit a pyrrhic victory). That the ad places this victory on the same level as winning the right to vote … well, that’s marketing for you.
No, for me, the shocking thing about this ad is seeing a cigarette commercial from this era at all. It feels as out of place as a TikTok video hyping up Victrola gramophones (though, thinking on it, there’s probably a whole TikTok community devoted to exactly that).
And turns out there’s a reason I’ve never encountered a cigarette commercial quite like this before: because this was the last cigarette commercial to air on U.S. TV. The law banning them went into effect January 2nd, 1971 – this ad aired at 11:59 PM on January 1st, 1971. Which gives the progression of time shown in this ad an extra layer of meaning – it’s the cigarette industry bidding a fond farewell to their television viewers, looking back at their origins and seeing how far they’ve come, like all good series finales do.
If cigarette commercials weren’t something I’m so glad we’re rid of, it’d almost be heartwarming.