Comments on: ads with pregnant women smoking cigarettes?

Question: ads with pregnant women smoking cigarettes?

sdn — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 11:03:23 -0800

i have just seen this awesome collection of vintage ads featuring brides, in bridal gowns, smoking cigarettes. and now (out of curiosity) i am wondering if there were any print ads, ever, featuring pregnant women smoking.

By: zoomorphic

zoomorphic — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 11:27:57 -0800

Well, there's this creepy ad where a baby remarks, "Gee Mommy, you sure enjoy your Marlboro. Yet you never feel over-smoked."

From what I understand about most vintage advertising, most ads avoided depicting pregnant women due to the old Victorian taboo that pregnancy was too personal a condition to openly discuss in the mainstream. I might be totally wrong, however.

For live scenes of (staged) pregnant women smoking like chimneys, rent Mad Men.

By: scody

scody — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 11:38:36 -0800

Lucille Ball frequently appeared in cigarette ads while she was pregnant (with both Lucie and Desi Jr.) in the early '50s, but I can't find any that show her as explicitly pregnant and smoking. But no doubt, the babies were envious of the adult enjoyments that awaited them!

most ads avoided depicting pregnant women due to the old Victorian taboo that pregnancy was too personal a condition to openly discuss in the mainstream.

I have the same hunch as well. Speaking of Lucille Ball, when she was pregnant (with Desi Jr./Little Ricky) on I Love Lucy, they couldn't even use the word "pregnant" because CBS was worried that it was too risque. They could only say she was "expecting."

By: julie_of_the_jungle

julie_of_the_jungle — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 11:47:26 -0800

My health professor had a series of ads that portrayed pregnant women smoking that were from the 70's and 80's. There were only 5-6 but it was still pretty sad. My google fu hasn't turned up anything, I'll see if I can't wrangle up his email address or something.

By: Sidhedevil

Sidhedevil — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 12:13:38 -0800

There was some concern about smoking during pregnancy even back in the "Doctors Recommend Chesterfields!" days, so the advertisers may have avoided depicting pregnant smokers for that reason as well. Anecdata: my own mother, who was a four-pack-a-day smoker, didn't smoke while pregnant (though I do have an amazing picture of her breastfeeding me while smoking and drinking a martini).

By: onhazier

onhazier — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 12:15:47 -0800

Here's one that depicts the cigarettes as the special delivery.

By: soelo

soelo — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 12:21:29 -0800

I am pretty sure I have seen PSAs about smoking that depicted a pregnant women, but she was usually holding cigarettes and not actually puffing. Of course, you might not consider those to be ads.

By: chez shoes

chez shoes — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 12:26:39 -0800

Seconding Sidhedevil's remark that even back in the day, some doctors told their "expectant" patients to stop smoking. My mom did in the 1960s while pregnant with me - although that didn't stop her from frequenting smoke-filled bars and drinking.

I have a feeling that just as our society was becoming less Victorian about things such as pregnancy (1960s?), we were also becoming more litigious - so, the window of time of the opportunity to market cigs to pregnant women probably closed pretty quickly.

By: Slarty Bartfast

Slarty Bartfast — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 12:57:30 -0800

(though I do have an amazing picture of her breastfeeding me while smoking and drinking a martini).

You can't just leave that hanging out there. We demand a look-see.

By: sarahnade

sarahnade — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 13:19:15 -0800

Stanford Med School's Library has cataloged a ton of cigarette ads here:
http://lane.stanford.edu/tobacco/index.html.
They have a bunch showing babies and kids, but no pregnant women as far as I could tell.

By: mareli

mareli — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 13:26:08 -0800

As recently as the 1950s pregnant teachers had to resign as soon as they started "showing."

By: sdn

sdn — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 14:37:19 -0800

sarahnade: apparently the original blogger got those ads from the same place.

By: Oriole Adams

Oriole Adams — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 13:43:05 -0800

Some doctors told their "expectant" patients to stop smoking. My mom did in the 1960s while pregnant with me - although that didn't stop her from frequenting smoke-filled bars and drinking.
Dunno if folks here are very familiar with the books Karen and With Love from Karen by Marie Killilea, writen about her daughter who was born in 1940 with cerebral palsy, at which time not a lot was known about the condition. Anyway, in WLFK, Marie joyfully discovers in 1957 that she is pregnant at age 43 (after trying for 12 years to have another baby). She sees an obstetrician who specializes in high-risk pregnancies, since two of her babies were born prematurely (at six and seven months' gestastion), and one baby died a few hours after being born. She'd also suffered half a dozen miscarriages. Yet during her initial consultation with this esteemed OB, he offered her a cigarette from a case on his desk and lit it for her. (She was put on complete bed rest for the last seven months of her pregnancy, during which time she regularly smoked, but she did give birth to a healthy, full-term baby.) I first read these books in the late 1970s, some 20 years after the first one had been published, and even then it shocked me that an MD would offer any patient, much less a pregnant woman, a cigarette.