Celebrity Cigarette Commercials

Continuing a thread about vintage TV ads we last did on September 8, today's post delves into 1950's and 1960's Commercial Land, specifically cigarettes.



To get in the mood, it's time for a cuppa joe from Conquistador Coffee!



Since the September 8 post started with animated ads, here are some very good ones plugging Lucky "LSMFT" Strikes.



While I don't know offhand who produced the stylish "It's Light Up Time" ads, they are the epitome of the prevalent 1950's graphic design style in animation, especially commercials, known as Cartoon Modern.







Not sure if a showbiz celebrity is one of the dancing Old Gold cigarette packs in this ad, but that's how we'll start the Celebrity Cigarette Commercials compendium. Didn't Mary Tyler Moore act as a dancing cigarette pack in one of these ads?



With a few cups of java from a roaster other than Conquistador Coffee now consumed, we now watch a Winston Cigarettes ad from the Beverly Hillbillies TV show starring Buddy Ebsen and Irene Ryan.



In another Beverly Hillbillies Winstons ad, Bea Benaderet joins the cast.



Here, a manufuctured couple (Rob & Laura Petrie played by Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore, who previously starred in the Happy Hotpoint ads) and a real one, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, adeptly sell smokes!





The Jack Benny Program on radio and TV was sponsored by Lucky Strikes.



In the early 1950's live Jack Benny shows, guest stars at times delivered the commercials, giving announcer Don Wilson a rare breather. In this case, the great Humphrey Bogart does the honors.



While the following celebrity ads compilation mostly consists of car commercials, there is a great Viceroy Cigarettes ad starring a pre-Batgirl Yvonne Craig; yes, Viceroy's got the taste that's right. It's the third one in the mix and starts at 1:00.



Here, the excellent vocalist and actress Julie London sings one of the Marlboro jingles ("you've got a lot to like with a Marlboro, filter, flavor, flip-top box). Later in the compilation, actor/writer Dennis O' Keefe stars in a bunch of commercials for Camel Cigarettes, as opposed to slapping guys around or terrorizing Ann Sheridan in a hard-boiled film noir thriller.



In closing, we extend a prominent top hat tip to Tim Romano for the following terrific compilation of commercials, mastered from 35mm.