All pariahs now, to one degree or another, but in the heady days when you could drink and smoke to your heart’s content, these ads encouraged you, if you needed any tempting, to risk your health, your pocket, your life. But there are great ads here, some being landmarks of the advertisers trade, like the Guinness campaigns or the Benson & Hedges ‘Gold’ campaign. These vintage advertisements for booze and fags sold lifestyle choices for people more likely to get killed in a war than succumb to cirrhosis of the liver or the increasingly popular ‘cancer’, and their banishment has, in some respects, left us all the poorer. When did you last reflect upon the brilliance of an advertising hoarding? The selection here records some of the best of the ads for these opiates, the like of which will not be seen again.
… and some of our favourites:
