Fred and Barney advertising cigarettes

I love the irony of this advert. It's a perfect example of how society has changed and how things back then were accepted and considered OK and healthy and a good thing to do is nowadays considered stuipid, terrible and most of all is unaccepted as 'cool' in modern society. Back when this advert was made it used already popular characters, actors, films and TV shows to promote their product and get it on the mainstream market; in this it is The Flinstones.

Ahh Fred and Barney the two most likeable lazy-ass shit husbands in the world... One of the likeable things about this (I think) is how the two are portrayed and also accepted as lazy husbands who sit on their asses and smoke all day whilst they watch their exhausted wives run around after them and do all of the housework. Back then this was accepted as a modern american househhold and marriage and is portrayed as 'regular and normal' in this parodical smoking advert. If they made an advert with this type of marriage theme in this manner nowadays it probably wouldn't be comedic or portrayed as normal but instead it would be portrayed as the opposite... bad marriages and bad husbands because of how much times have changed and how women are accepted as equal in modern society. It just shows how likeable charcaters or TV shows, or whatever you want (because there are a lot of things that could be used) can in fact sway and pursuade you (or even brainwash you) into believing that you should do something, or act in a certain way, in this case it is spending money on cigarretes to be accepted and brainwashed into believing that it's the right thing to do!

You probably think I'm just rambling on about something incoherent and irrelevant to this advert but I'm not. What I'm trying to say is that comparing this to a modern smoking advert is just incredible, for example the kid's inhaling secondhand smoke advert . The themes and the way the product is promoted is on completely opposite sides! In this advert, the cigarretes are promoted as a good thing, a normal thing and also a more-or-less new and cool thing, and it was accepted. If you were young and walked round with a cigarrete back then (and I'm assuming this is in the 50's) you were considered cool. If your young now and walking round with a cigarrete in your mouth then you are considered a stuipid wanker who is voluntarily paying to suffer an early death and that you're a badly brought up, scruffy show off!

Smoking adverts these days are warnings, not promotions. Everyone knows how bad they are for your health. Most of us have a family member or know someone who has had some form of cancer which is linked to smoking. People pay a lot of money, well-earned and hard-worked money on something which is known as a fact to rot and destroy our insides and put us in an early grave. It's just a matter of time before it's made illegal. Society has changed and it's still changing...
The proof is above these paragraphs.