You like them fresh? So do I?
Freshness as a Metaphor for Healthfulness
Tobacco ads are notorious for broadcasting what can only be called the “Big Lie” - and think about it: how could the inhalation of smoke of any kind be compared to “mountain air”? Smoke is offered as “fresh” and “clean”; smoking was supposed to be “springtime fresh” or make you “alive with pleasure.” Ads such as these continued long past the 1950s, with verbal or visual themes of outdoor recreation, mountain air, clean rushing streams, and so forth. The freshness theme early on became grist for the industry’s “tit for tat” advertising. So while Lucky Strikes were “Toasted” (“Sunshine mellows, heat purifies”) Camels countered that their product was “Naturally fresh: never parched, never toasted!”
Freshness was also commonly used as kind of code-word for healthfulness. Slogans used in tobacco ads called to mind the “cool” of ice or the fresh healing virtues of springtime mountain pastures. “Kool” and other menthol brands were also supposed to deliver a kind of hospital-like sense of sanitary safety, and one company implied cleanliness in its very name. “Sano” cigarettes didn’t last very long: they didn’t deliver as much in the way of tar or nicotine as more popular brands and their marketing skill lagged behind that of the bigger players. By contrast, menthol brands grew in popularity after the postwar “health scare,” and many other forms of “health reassurance” were offered (space-age filters of myriad sorts, promises of low-tar and/or nicotine deliveries, eventually “lights,” etc.).
Female, Fresh, Natural, Nurse, Toasted
