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Broadcasters who did cigarette/cigar ads

B

bpatrick

Bud Collyer was the announcer on a DuMont show called "The Fishing and Hunting Club," sponsored by Cremo cigars. He would do the commercials wherein he would take a big puff and extol on the virtues of the cigar. One night someone, either from Cremo or its ad agency, invited Collyer to dinner after the show when he had some time. What do you do after the show, the person asked. "I throw up and go home," answered Collyer.

Did I miss it, or did someone already mention Dennis James as spokesperson for Old Gold?
 
Ernie Kovacs had Dutch Masters Cigars for a sponsor in his shows, and in his early 60's shows would work the ads into his sketches.
 
George Burns and Uncle Milty both sported almost constant cigars. But I don't recall either one doing any advertising for them.
 

www.jimramsburg.com

ARTHUR GODFREY

The story in text and sounds of Arthur Godfrey, "The Old Redhead" who was American radio and television's greatest star of the mid-20th Century.
www.jimramsburg.com

There have been stories out there that Arthur Godfrey the then most watched TV show in the 1950's was a big sponsor for Chesterfield cigarettes.


In January, 1950, Godfrey added another nighttime show to his schedule - one that he could listen to on his Virginia farm on Saturday nights. Arthur Godfrey’s Digest was a half-hour compilation of highlights from each week’s Arthur Godfrey Time shows sponsored by Liggett & Myers’ Chesterfield cigarettes. The following month, Time magazine ran a cover story on Godfrey which referred to him a “The One Man Industry.”
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Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble for Winston cigarettes, animated smoking and all. And, no, they didn't call them "Winstones," either.
 
KeithE4 said:
Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble for Winston cigarettes, animated smoking and all. And, no, they didn't call them "Winstones," either.
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This, to my knowledge, only happened in Season One.

Under pressure from parent groups, ABC cancelled Winston's sponsorship of "Flintstones" in 1961.

Supposedly, the reason ABC sold sponsorship to a cigarette company in the first place was that "Flintstones" was intended as a cartoon for grownups, not children, and in fact, the program aired in an 8:30 P.M. (Eastern/Pacific) timeslot in it's first three seasons before being moved to a more child friendly earlier slot.
 
No, he did advertise Chesterfields on his Wednesday-night show. Lipton Tea sponsored "Talent Scouts" on Monday. I'm not sure if either advertised on his daytime show.
 
We all know about Lucy and Desi with Phillip Morris, which they did endorse. I’ve seen an episode on YouTube where Phillip Morris cigarettes are part of the plot of the show.
 
51 years ago, folks...

The very last cigarette brand ever advertised on American TV, at 11:59 p.m on January 2, 1971, during The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Richard Nixon had signed the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act, which banned cigarette advertisements on broadcast media, on April 1, 1970. But it didn’t take effect immediately, the tobacco industry having managed to negotiate for itself one last chance to air commercials during the college football games of New Year’s Day 1971.
 
Martin Milner did ads for Marlboro on "Route 66". Dick Van Dyke shilled for Kent on his show. And Joey Bishop pushed Pall Malls, then Newports. Even the Beverly Hillbillies sold Marlboros in their first season. Don't forget the tobacco companies were the largest advertisers on TV in the 50s and 60s-and TV took a big hit when cigarette ads were banned.
 
These days, the big advertisers are drug companies and car companies. Oh, yes, and beer, wine, and alcohol companies. Whenever you see the alcohol ads, you see the tag line, "Please drink responsibly," because the liquor companies don't want lawsuits from their clients.
 
blackgold said:
These days, the big advertisers are drug companies and car companies. Oh, yes, and beer, wine, and alcohol companies. Whenever you see the alcohol ads, you see the tag line, "Please drink responsibly," because the liquor companies don't want lawsuits from their clients.
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Not mention all the other idiotic 'common sense' directives such as "wear your seatbelt", "smoking may cause health issues", "don't touch electric fence", "slow traffic keep to right".... and on and on.

There should be a medical test developed to test a fetus for lack of common sense in the womb. Test positive? Yer outta heah!!!
 
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