The day they stopped advertizing cigarettes on TV ... Jan 1, 1971

I recall it well. It was a time to remember that January day when everything on TV changed. Cigarettes were a part of life. All the people you knew smoked. My doctor smoked, TV anchors smoked, my mom smoked, and so did most of the world.

But the beginnings of a change started in 1970, when it was announced that cigarette ads would be banned forever from TV as we went into the new year. So we all watched as New Years Eve came and it worked into New Years Day. There was nothing on TV except cigarette ads that New Years. I guess I saw about 60 cigarette ads that night.

I still recall many of the jingles from that time nearly 40 years ago. I even remember some of the commercials. They were always well done and always got your attention. But then the night of New Years Eve 1970 we said goodbye to the many cigarette commercials that had been a part of all our lives.

January 1971 was the first month of the first year that there was no TV ads for smoking. It was a very different world without them. Not that I was advocating smoking, but that they were often so darn clever. Well, that was a short and quick memory from a long time ago, when smoking was a very big part of the culture.