Mad magazine’s glorious anti-smoking campaign

[slimvictor]

When Al Feldstein, the long-time editor of Mad magazine, died, in April, no one mentioned one of his major accomplishments: warning millions of impressionable boys and girls of the perils of smoking. Had the tobacco industry paid more attention, he might also have saved it billions of dollars a few decades down the road.

In the early to mid-nineteen-sixties, both before and after the Surgeon General issued his famous report on the dangers of tobacco, Mad took on the industry more than any “respectable” magazine. Free from any dependency on advertising, Mad could be fearless, and it was. Its campaign of ridicule was unrelenting.

The magazine attacked not just the tobacco giants but the folks on Madison Avenue who hawked the poisonous products—many of whom, it noted, were too smart to smoke themselves. Smokers weren’t spared either. (Who can forget Mad regular David Berg’s feature “Lighter Side of Smoking,” whose first panel showed a man looking out a window at night as a blizzard rages. “Gad, look at the miserable weather!” he declares. “Boy, nothing could make me go outdoors!” In the second panel, the man, eyes popping out, rummages frantically through a drawer in search of a smoke. In the third, he’s huddled grimly over the steering wheel driving to the store, his wipers and headlights fighting through the snow.)

cont at
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blo...d=gnep&google_editors_picks=true#slide_ss_0=1

 

[spacejunk]

The understated power of satire to get a serious message across.
Very cool.

 

['medicine cabinet']

I used to collect mad when I was a kid for a few years. Great comic book

 

[bit_pattern]

Great article, thanks Slim.

On another note, I saw something recently about BAT attempting to sue activists for culture jamming with images such as these:

 

[_DankOpiAmp_]

Lol, awesome. Mad magazine was always a blast to read.

 

[slimvictor]

I loved Mad as a kid. Had a pretty decent collection.
The combination of the irreverence and the humor really worked for me.

 

[spacejunk]

Great artwork too.
Those back-cover fold-ins were absolute genius.

And I remember the anti-smoking messages; the Doctor with his smoker patient "Kaputnik".
A much better message than the advertisements most comics/cartoons/magazines run, trying to con kids into wasting their (parents') money on useless shit.
Recall a few environmental messages in there too (from 80s era Mad).