Smoking in the 1980's

[Andy008]

A bit before my time as I'm only 24, but with the impending smoking ban in pubs it jogged my memory, I am I right in thinking that during the 70's and 80's, it was not only tolerated, but actively encouraged to smoke in offices, on trains, cinemas, etc?

[paddywak]

I can't remember it being encouraged but it certainly was excepted by most people in fact, in my particular circle of friends, everybody smoked. When I decided to pack in (in 1972) they all thought I was daft. Now over the years they have all kicked the habbit but for two of them. Having said it was not officially encourage the tobacco companies were major sporting sponsors & everywhere you looked there were ads for cigarettes on TV, Bill boards & in News Papers

[JK2]

In the fifties and early 60's the cigarette companies used to have teams of people going round giving away packets of 5 cigarettes free at sporting events, entertainment evenings etc.

[lafrancaise]

During the late 70s when I started smoking i was advised not to by my parents, not because of the health danger but because of the waste of money! In their youth in the 50s it was very 'in' to smoke and quite old-fashioned if you didn't. People smoked everywhere and just lit up wherever!
Strangely, the smoke didn't seem to stink as it does nowadays...... (must say, I gave up a couple of years ago)

[Bev2007]

You need to go a bit further back, to before the early fifties. If you search some early ads for Marlboro, Camel, Chesterfields you can see alot of celebrity endorsement including this cracker of baby encouraging mum to light up !
http://www.creativepro.com/story/feature/22938 .html

"Before you scold me Mom..... maybe you'd better light up a Marlboro"
"Yes you need never feel oversmoked, that's the miracle of Marlboro"

[jno]

great site, Bev. The only active encouragement came from the tobacco companies (and those celebrities they had on their payrolls), but smoking was common on films and TV. The first anti-smoking campaign I recall was the entirely unofficial one run in Mad magazine, in which cigarette ads were spoofed; that was in the 1960s. Restrictions on ads were in force in the 1970s - you could advertise but not say anything very much. Benson & Hedges ads were very clever, just surreal pictures of packets and cigarettes that didn't say anything at all. There are a couple here:

http://www.hatads.org.uk/library8.htm#9

The real turning point was the evidence of the dangers of secondary smoking, which came out I think in the 1980s: that smokers weren't just killing themselves but non-smokers too. That gave non-smokers the leverage to demand that it be restricted.

London tube trains used to have 2 smoking carriages (seond from each end) until the King's Cross fire in 1987, and they stank; after that it was banned on the whole network.

[vehelpfulguy]

I saw an old TV program on one of the "Sky" channels a few months ago, it was a sort of comics quiz show with people like Les Dawson etc in the panel.

It was about 25 years old (?) and it was introduced by Barry Cryer.

The thing that amazed me was that everyone on the program was smoking. There were ash trays on the panels desks and plumes of smoke drifting up into the air.

It was an amazing sight.

[B00]

Used to be able to smoke on the top deck of double decker buses, and at the back of normal buses.

[Loosehead]

far from it, I think the 80's was when the tide turned, my first proper job was in 1983 and people smoked in the office, by 1990 it was banned in most offices I knew. There has in the past been encouragement but that came directly or indirectly from the tobacco companies. I think you have to go back to the 40's and 50's where anyone seriously beleived it was good for you! Roll on July 1st, I can't wait, let's get the smelly addicts out on the pavement!

[spudqueen]

I wouldn't have said it was actively encouraged, ie no one came round offering you cigarettes or saying you can only sit there if you smoke, but as has been said you could smoke on the top deck of double decker buses, at the back on single deckers, on trains, in cinemas, in banks, on the tube stations, in smoking carriages on tubes, even in aeroplanes.

[jno]

that's right, spudqueen, I once went on a plane (Air Zimbabwe) that was half smoking, half non-smoking. Unfortunately they split it lengthways, down the middle of the aisle.

I agree with Loosehaead about it being the 1980s but as I said I think that was to do with the discovery of the risks of secondary smoking. Before that it was thought unfair to make smokers give up, however disgusting you thought it.

[HWKE]

I wonder why smoking has been banned in public places on the strength of an argument which says 400 people a year die through secondary smoking, when at some of the same public places we are encouraged to consume alcohol. How many people per year die through the secondary effects of drinking alcohol?