“Of course you’ll give cigarettes for Christmas.”

[sholio]

Vintage cigarette Christmas ads from the 1950s sure are a thing. I fell down this rabbit hole after I came across one on Tumblr. There are just SO MANY and they're all like a freaky, Christmas-colored peek into another universe.

There's nothing like Santa smoking to make you feel like you've jumped to an alternate reality.

Give cigarettes to everyone you know!

The holiday cartons that look like boxes of candy are weirding me out.

Nothing says 'festive lung cancer' like a tree decorated with cigarettes!

"There is nothing under our tree but cigarettes and Jim says I'm not allowed to complain about it."

Enjoy more festive cigarettes here, here, and here, if you can handle that much holiday spirit.

Comments

[ratcreature]

Though 1950s ads often are weird. Here they still haven't managed to outlaw tobacco advertising (though they intermittently say they intend to or something -- every now and then you see some news article, I think the latest is that's supposed to phase out by 2022?), so I'm still used to see cigarette ads in the metro and such. So I don't find that weird per se, but the aesthetic is sure something...

Not that later ads aren't weird, look at this German Christmas themed cigarette magazine ad. I remember that weird campaign, I think it was in the early 00s? Not sure.

[sartorias]

OMG what a blast from the past, and not in a good way!

I remember getting candy cigarettes for Halloween and party favors.

[krait]

I remember buying candy cigarettes from a truck that came around my neighbourhood selling various cheap candies to kids after school! Sometimes for Halloween, too, but not often.

(I still secretly love them, and buy them when I find them.)

[ellenmillion]

Those are AMAZING. The RONALD REAGAN one, OMG.

[lilacsigil]

I remember being in Japan and seeing an anti-smoking poster that showed a basketballer wearing springs on his feet and saying "Don't smoke while you're underage. That's against the rules." Super effective, guys, super effective!

OTOH, in Australia all cigarette packs have to carry genuinely horrible pictures of things like gangrenous feet and diseased hearts, and no advertising is allowed, so I'm not really used to seeing much in the way of positive cigarette pictures!

[lunabee34]

Oh wow.

I'm old enough to remember cigarette ads on TV, but none of them were like this. LOL

[leesa_perrie]

Those are... interesting from an historical point of view!! I do remember some cigarette advertising (Hamlet cigar TV ads from my youth for instance), but not quite like this!!!

This one is almost shocking! I mean, okay, Santa is presumably her hubby dressed up for the kids (one hopes), but it does look very much like the lady is trying to hit Santa up so he ignores her (possibly many?) trespasses and doesn't give her coal this year, lol!! :D :D :D

[kore]

OMG candy cigarettes yes, and we pretended to "smoke" rather than eat them because we wanted to look Cool.

[kore]

WOW

....that's all I got, just WOW. I am also old enough to remember cigarette ads in print media and I think TV, and still, nothing like this!

[kore]

I thought I had seen those Hamlet ads, but it turned out I was confusing them with the Ernie Kovacs Dutch Masters commercials.

[kore]

Oh my Jesus the Joan Crawford one just took years off my actual life

Santa smoking Lucky Strike and Pall Malls weirded me out but then I hit the Murad one and had to fight the urge to hide behind the sofa.

I used to be so puzzled by those Tareyton ads when I was a kid. "They fight....eyeshadow?"

[sartorias]

yup. *shudder*

[calandrahunter]

I watched all of the original Twilight Zone episodes with a friend this year, and sometimes they still had some, including cigarettes. Sure, Rod Serling, I'll take your word on cigarettes!