Would you be a smoker if you were living in the 60s or 70s?

[DebbieD78]

Looking at TV ads for smoking and they all seemed to be aimed at women. I wonder if I'd have been taken in by them and taken up the habit if i'd been in my teens or 20s forty years ago.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTFtciWa618
www.youtube.com/watch?v=2B3g80Q03t8
www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rGs89IueTk

Yes.

Oh, probably. I was a smoker in the 90s.

I have never smoked, my dad smoked when I was young and I always hated it.

Not a hope. Hit my teens in the 70's subjected to second-hand smoke on buses and in other public places. Always thought it was a horrible habit

I was one in the 80s, 90s, and 00s so I daresay I'd have been one then too.

Absolutely. Had my first ciggy in 1974 at about 14. Smoked 20 a day from about 18 - 33 when dh and started ttc.

Yes, I love a cheeky fag.

Reckon I would have as I like the odd one now!

I was a smoker in the early 70s. Luckily I saw sense and couldn't afford it in the late 70s.

In the hospital where I gave birth to my first DC, it was quite acceptable to smoke in the ward where the babies were.

It was also acceptable to smoke at work, in the cinema, in shops and on tv.

Thank goodness it's not now.

Yum Yum lovely fags (I am an ex smoker who still has pangs).

I would definitely have smoked back then because everyone did everywhere. Buses, offices, houses, cars, probably in playgroups (wouldn't surprise me). One of our teachers used to nip out and have a fag in the corridor mid lesson. My art teacher smoked during lessons in the classroom.

Although I didn't like my parents smoking or the smell of it, I was just used to it and it reminds me of a simpler time! :-)

Just remembered, there's a scene in Jaws where the mayor visits the hospital and is smoking on a ward with patients in the background. These days he's be jailed for some sort of injury to health by proxy lawsuit.

I was 5 in 1970, 14 by the end of the 70's. My neighbour smoked at 7. Still never started, but perhaps that was because my folks did and they both had hacking, smokers coughs. Both died of cancer. Mum died of lung cancer. The worrying thing is, she smoked when pregnant and she smoked constantly/chain smoked the whole 25 years I lived at home. I hope I don't get it, but it's probably morelikely :(

People used to smoke on gameshows in the US, the host and contestants. And on talk shows too! Not sure if that happened over here or not.

Well, I did live in the 60s and 70s; but you have to remember 'the past is a different country, they do things differently there'. A woman smoking was looked down on a bit, so few women smoked - it just wasn't considered appropriate. Maybe that's why the ads appear to target women - they were a market the cigarette companies were trying to break.

The three brands in the ds you linked to are Kool, Pall Mall, and John Player Special. I've never heard of Kool, I suspect they were not sold in the UK. Pall Mall - not sure I ever saw them in the shops either, although the brand seems familiar to me. JPS was a very well known brand - I rather think that ad may be trying to appeal to women, but also to kid men on that if they smoke JPS, that is the sort of woman who comes with them. (Yes, ads really were that blunt back then.)

Yes, I remember guests smoking on UK talk shows and I think an episode of This Is Your Life.

I smoked on a plane as late as 1998. It was full of Russians who all smoke like buggers.

That 3rd ad is from cinemas. I think they must have allowed cigarette advertising in cinemas for a few years after it was banned on TV.

Yup

Really ? On game shows. Bizarre.

I smoked for 30 years and only gave up a couple of years ago.

Having said that, it's at least 20 years (when I had my first child) since I smoked inside the house - or anybody else's house.

It seems really, really odd to watch old films & t.v. programmes with people smoking indoors and on the bus. It feels like watching criminals at work

Yes, I did smoke in the 70s.
DebbieD78, it was quite normal for guests on chat shows in this country to smoke. Dave Allen (comedian) used to smoke through his entire show.
I remember going to the GP and he would smoke during the consultation
My grandfather was in hospital and he was so ill he could hardly move. As soon as we arrived to visit him he would shout at my Dad to light him a cigarette and my dad would have to hold it to his lips for him to smoke it.

God yes. Absolutely. For some bizarre reason my mental picture of myself always has a fag. Even though I never smoked exceptspliffs- except regularly occasionally. Probably because my mum used to smoke.

I can't remember any smoking on gameshows, but it was certainly there on talk shows like Parkinson.

I would have been, certainly, but it does stink so - did then and does now. :(

It did look cooler then than it does now.

My stepfather who is 70ish remembers going to the doctor as a child and young man and the doctor smoked.