Virginia Slims Cigarettes

[jocelmeow.livejournal.com]

When I think of cigarette advertising, the Virginia Slims "You've come a long way, baby" campaign is the first thing that comes to mind. I remember liking them as a teen because of the fashions on display in them and because of the comical "old" photos. Here are a bunch of their ads from the LIFE archive. These ran in this order from 1968-1972.

Comments

[shortsweetcynic.livejournal.com]

these are kind of awesome. i love the contrast of then-and-now, love the use of white space.

regardless of my own feelings on smoking - this is a great campaign.

[morrigan716.livejournal.com]

I remember some of those ads from reading my mom's Redbook magazines.

[ms-hissyfit.livejournal.com]

I kind of love the one about deserving to have your own cliches, won't make me take up smoking though.

[gatepromise.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, I remember those ads too--they were fab. Quite a time capsule into fashion and hair styles of the times too. I remember the jingle from the commercials too, back when advertising cigarettes was still allowed: "You've come a long way, baby, to get where you wanna be. You've got Virgina Slims now baby, youve come a long, long way."

[luke-russell.livejournal.com]

"Rich yet Mild" ? Huh?

[urbantravels.livejournal.com]

I love the one about how Virginia Slims are slim so they can fit women's fingers and woman's lips. As if regular cigarettes were the size of barrels.

[meleth.livejournal.com]

I like to smoke lady cigarettes while taking dictation with my lady pen.

[pikkewyntjie.livejournal.com]

I used to like this campaign because I thought it was clever and I liked the feminist tone, but, of course, now I find them very manipulative. Some of them almost seem to have an anti-feminist subtext, especially the ones that suggest women can't handle the larger men's cigarettes. "Slimmer to fit you"? Just where is it that they think I'm planning to put it? Are they for virgins? I guess when you can handle an entire cigar, you're officially a slut and ready for a White House internship (yes, I know the '90s called and wants its joke back).

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

Yeah, they haven't aged particularly well.

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

I always loved these, even though I hated smoking.