I used to smoke cigarettes. I loved them so much. I smoked with a passion for smoking.
But we all know how that could go. So I quit on February 1, 2001. 2.1.2001. A good day.
People have known for a long time that cigarette smoking is bad for us humans. And everyone else on the planet, for that matter.
Despite all his flaws, President Richard Nixon understood this, too.
On April 1, 1970, Nixon signed a law that officially banned cigarette ads on television and radio. Ironically, Nixon himself enjoyed the occasional cigar. The good old stogie.
But the pressure from public health advocates had grown too strong to ignore. So he signed the law.
The truth about smoking had been building for decades. As early as 1939, studies warned of its link to cancer and heart disease. By the late 1950s, every state had banned cigarette sales to minors. This surprises me. I started smoking when I was 14. I bought cigarettes all the time before I turned 18. So much for that little law.
Anyway, the cigarette slam continued. In 1964, the Federal Trade Commission and Federal Communications Commission agreed that cigarette companies should start warning consumers about health risks.
A few years later, the U.S. surgeon general reported that smoking caused low birth weight. As such, Congress passed the Cigarette Smoking Act of 1969. It required manufacturers to print the now-familiar warning: “Cigarette Smoking May be Hazardous to Your Health.”
Still, cigarette ads ruled the airwaves in the 1960s. Those ads were everywhere in many different ways. In 1969, tobacco companies were the biggest spenders on television advertising.
But by the early ’70s, the battle between the tobacco lobby and public health officials came to a head. Congress sided with science. (What? Congress sided with science? If we could only be so lucky today.)
Back to the cigarette ban. The final televised cigarette commercial aired at 11:50 p.m. on January 1, 1971. It appeared, fittingly, during The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. I should tell you. Carson died of respiratory failure caused by emphysema. He was 79.
It used to be that about 45% of the population smoked cigarettes. Today, only 11% smoke. Good for us. Good for Nixon. Good for us.
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“Giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world. I know because I’ve done it thousands of times.” — Mark Twain
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“It’s never too late — in fiction or in life — to revise.” — Nancy Thayer
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“The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.” — Samuel Johnson
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