1979 Winston Cigarettes Ad

This is from a Red Sox game program from 1979. "I want the best taste I can get, I get it from Winston."

I tell you what, I used to be a smoker and would have been totally on board with the concept of "taste" and cigarettes, but I very much remember cheating and sneaking cigarettes when I was trying to quit and they actually taste terrible, like cotton pulling the moisture from your mouth. It was peer pressure that made them enjoyable in the beginning, and then the nicotine that told me they were enjoyable and had some sort of "taste" that I should like.

Love the Mad Men episodes where they have to confront marketing these things- "It's toasted!"

The Pleasure is Back. Barclay cigarettes

This is a full page ad from the 1981 Seattle Mariners home game program. Barclay! My step-father smoked these for a long time. The filter wasn't round but the paper around the filter was, so there were chutes of airspace that you dragged hot and unpleasant smoke from. I was not a fan, and neither was he, they were "low tar." A few years later he said screw it and went to Camel filtered.

Carlton is Lowest

This is a cigarette ad from the back of the Playbill for the play Annie. (Playbill is the magazine you get when you go to a Broadway Play).

This must be from 1977 or so, which is interesting because this company was advertising that it had lower tar than the others on the market, obviously trying to make their product seem healthier than the industry in general.

Kool Cigarettes Ad, 1990

This is an advertisement for Kool cigarettes that appeared in magazines around 1990.

They were mentholated cigarettes, so that the smoke actually felt "cool" going into your lungs. Yeah, it's a pretty insane habit and even more insane that we take business more seriously than lives. I smoked for years, knew it was bad for me and would rabidly defend the habit to anyone that was critical of it. Thank goodness I quit! Never did like menthol cigarettes, but the image being sold here is pretty Kool.

Winston Racing Nation Matchbook

From back in the days when it was "The Winston Cup" in NASCAR, here's a matchbook from the Winston Racing Nation!