Displays, we remember WHEN SMOKING WASGOOD!

BEFORE the world went mad and banned grown adults from even LOOKING at cigarettes, the smoking of tobacco brought out the very best in advertising.

Who can forget the banter between “Lambert” and “Butler”? Or the Silk Cut billboard based bizarrely around a swan?

Cool

But those classics were merely the refined offspring of an amazing advertising ancestry – which for decades admittedly made smoking look, well...cool!

Like actor Ronald Reagan – who would go on to be one of the most celebrated U.S. Presidents – signing a carton of Chesterfields with the Christmas message: “I’m sending Chesterfields to all my friends.”

Or the Viceroys packet, with a man in white declaring: “As your dentist, I’d recommend Viceroys.”

We literally won’t see anything like this again – not unless we move to the Far East, anyway.

Meanwhile, here’s a selection of ads from smoking’s Golden Era...