The other day as I was driving to my midtown office, I saw not one, not two but three different people toss their lit cigarettes out of their car. On the way home I saw yet another person do it. That is four fire hazards that I saw in less than three hours. I do care about Arizona and know tossing out a lit cigarette is a potential fire hazard. In fact, the infraction in tossing out a lit cigarette in Arizona is a Class 3 misdemeanor and can carry a fine up to $500. It is too bad local authorities do not enforce this fire hazard here in “Blazing Arizona.”  I imagine it would help us begin to get out of debt. Still, all this got me thinking …

Before the hazardous health effects of smoking were widely known, cigarette companies were able to advertise largely regulation-free. Sponsors used cigarette ads that featured endorsements from dentists, doctors, babies and even Santa Clause and in 1964 U.S. Surgeon General, Luther Terry released a report on smoking and health saying it was dangerous for our health and regulations began to appear.  On an interesting note, in 1991 a study found Camel cigarettes mascot Joe Camel was more recognizable among five and six year olds than Mickey Mouse.

This proves how great cigarette ads were. Some of the ads were awesome. Five year olds loved them. These catchy ads stuck in your mind like tar stuck on your lungs. I think one of my favorite ads is a picture of a doctor smoking a cigarette and the caption says, “More Doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarette.” I do believe the makers of Kool will disagree because their ad said, “4 out of 5 doctors who smoke, smoke Kools.” Advertisers thought L & M Cigarettes were “Just what the doctor ordered.” So it becomes confusing as to which cigarette doctors recommended the most.

Some of the slogans I recall are were, “Come up to – KOOL.”  If you wanted to be cool surely you needed to smoke Kools and when I first started to smoke, Kools was what I started with however, when I quit smoking over six years ago, I was smoking what doctors recommended the most and that was Camels.

I was rather fond of Viginia Slims and the saying, “You’ve come a long way, baby.”  One that stays in the forefront of my mind was, “Us Tareyton smokers would rather fight than switch.” There stood someone with a black eye, I recall my cousin and I pretended to smoke a cigarette and painted a black eye on ourselves. We should have been in commercials!

There were some great jingles that were created for cigarette advertizing. Now let us clear our throats and sing the following, “Have-a-Lark Have-a-Lark Have-a-Lark today!”  How about “Winston tastes good like a (snap, snap) cigarette should!”  These are jingles remain in my head and I sometimes find myself singing them along with other old jingles of my past.

Other great one-liners I recall include; “I’d walk a mile for a Camel,” or “Come to where the flavor is. Come to Marlboro Country.” On the more feminine the makers of Eve cigarettes came up with “The first truly feminine cigarette–almost as pretty as you are.” I am sure every woman loved to know that a cigarette was almost as pretty as she was. No doubt women loved being compared to a cigarette. Still, one of my favorites and many comedians have had a blast with the makers of Silva Thins and their slogan was, “Long and lean that’s the way I like things.”

Stay tuned next week when we tackle commercials such as “you’ll wonder where the yellow went, when you brush your teeth with Pepsodent.” I do love the old ads. What was a cigarette commercial that stood out in your mind?

I was on the phone the other day and someone had stated they would get something delivered by a date that I had desired. I had said to them well groovy, and the person laughed and told me they had not heard that word for decades and it got me thinking…

I still use the word groovy. I am unsure if I ever quit saying it. It is a word that simply makes sense. If you are too young to remember groovy, it means cool, pleasant, or awesome. It is a positive term essentially meaning good. Which of course today we say bad if it is good, as in “Oh, that new car is bad.” In the 60s, we would have said, “Oh, that new car is groovy.” Of course, some people would just say, “Oh, that new car is nice.” Yes, it can be confusing, but good or bad, it all means the same thing.

I began to wonder how groovy came about? No, Austin Powers did not invent the word. In fact, the word has been around for some time.  In the 20s and 30s jazz musicians used it if they were in the groove of things and this was basically thought of because of the grooves on a record. Somehow along the way, we stopped using the term, it seemed to disappear, and we did not hear the word used for over a decade.

Midway through the 50s when Beatniks and coffee houses were big, the word resurfaced once again. As the beatniks phased out and the hippy movement began groovy reached its peak. When I say reached its peak, I mean you heard it not only in school yards and social gatherings, you could turn TV on, and shows like Mod Squad, Love American Style, The Dating Game and other groovy hip shows were using the term as regular language. Many songs had the word groovy in it.  Groovy Kind of Love,  feeling Groovy, Groovy Baby, We’ve Got A Groovy Thing Goin’, Ain’t That A Groove, Hang On Groovy  is just a few of the songs that had this wonderful word in it.

The word fizzled by the time the 80s came around. I think it was because everyone cared more about their hair then slang. That was too bad that life in the 80s was about Aqua Net and big hair, but for me, I was still saying groovy. It didn’t matter what people had to say, I did not care, it was all groovy.

Today I still use this word and tell people to use it just to get response. After all, I am still that want to be hippy that wears tie-dye and says groovy. I don’t care what people think, I love how the word makes me feel, and the memories it produces for me. I hope groovy will one day resurface until then, take the time today and if someone says how are you, just say groovy!