I am an opera singer. What trouble I had to find the right cigarette! Now I smoke Helmar Turkish cigarettes. A great throat specialist recommended them.
Helmar features an archetypal opera singer in this ad, unidentified except for his bare title as “the opera singer.” This fictional character explains that “a great throat specialist recommended” Helmars because they are “pure” and “mild.” Though the ad uses the same approach as later Lucky Strike ads which feature endorsements from Metropolitan Opera singers, this Helmar ad falls short; it is not very convincing when the endorser is clearly not a real person. Oftentimes, tobacco companies would use “endorsements” from everyday people like secretaries and travel agents, but they would select actors from central casting agencies and provide them with names and hometowns so as to make the ads seem more convincing.
Male, Mild, Opera, Pure, Singer, Throat
