Flintstones Cigarette Commercial

Hey kids! How about we kick off this ol' blog of mine with a little something out of the ordinary, a little unbelievable, almost to the point of surreal. I found this old black & white commercial of The Flintstones hawking Winston cigarettes. Can you imagine the outrage and astronomical lawsuits if a tobacco company were to try and sponsor a cartoon television program in this day and age? Well, way back—before it was common knowledge that smoking will kill you, or at least before anyone would admit to it—no one seemed to think much about it. When I was a kid you could find candy cigarettes in the penny candy section of almost any grocery store. And just for the record, in my day only a very few items were actually sold for a mere penny, most were 2¢ or 3¢, but the really good stuff was a nickle. Anyway, I remember going with my mom in her 1957 Cadillac, Old Betsey, every Friday afternoon to take my grandmother shopping, and Grandma always smoked in the store, or pretty much anywhere else she wanted. As I recall, she smoked Pall Malls unfiltered coffin nails, truly a foul cigarette, and I've got news for you, Winstons aren't much better. Incidentally, a ban on commercials for cigarettes went into effect on my 5th birthday, January 2nd, 1971 for both television and radio . You can read more about it here if you're so inclined. And now, without further adieu, the Flintstones.