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Don Quixote · 11-21-2016, 09:58 PM

Hi, Touhy.

Just a little perspective from someone who was young when the surgeon general's notice about tobacco came out (1964, was it?). It's true that lots of people suspected that tobacco caused health problems--that's why they popularly called cigarettes "coffin nails" for many years before that.

But the amount of money and "research" the tobacco companies put into hiding and denying the effects was staggering. Just look at some YouTube videos of cigarette commercials from the '50s and '60s. Look at print ads of doctors swearing that tobacco was not only safe, but even healthful ("not a cough in a carload", was one slogan). Look at TV and the movies in the '40s, '50s and 60', and see how much smoking went on--do you think this was just by accident? This was the atmosphere Gord grew up in. He obviously has a bit of an addictive personality (his drinking, for example), and it might just have been impossible for him to give it up. It makes me enormously sad, and I have many smokers in my family who are in the same boat, but you have to understand that there was not only no stigma against smoking--it was socially cool, and was messaged by companies that had billions to spend on advertising and product placement.

DQ

11-21-2016, 09:58 PM	#17
Don Quixote Senior Member Join Date: May 2004 Location: Springfield, MA 01109 Posts: 310	Re: If Gord's Lungs Could Speak Hi, Touhy. Just a little perspective from someone who was young when the surgeon general's notice about tobacco came out (1964, was it?). It's true that lots of people suspected that tobacco caused health problems--that's why they popularly called cigarettes "coffin nails" for many years before that. But the amount of money and "research" the tobacco companies put into hiding and denying the effects was staggering. Just look at some YouTube videos of cigarette commercials from the '50s and '60s. Look at print ads of doctors swearing that tobacco was not only safe, but even healthful ("not a cough in a carload", was one slogan). Look at TV and the movies in the '40s, '50s and 60', and see how much smoking went on--do you think this was just by accident? This was the atmosphere Gord grew up in. He obviously has a bit of an addictive personality (his drinking, for example), and it might just have been impossible for him to give it up. It makes me enormously sad, and I have many smokers in my family who are in the same boat, but you have to understand that there was not only no stigma against smoking--it was socially cool, and was messaged by companies that had billions to spend on advertising and product placement. DQ Last edited by Don Quixote; 11-21-2016 at 10:22 PM.