favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite

Is this the best comedy collection of cigarette ads? If not, it must run a close second to the late-1950s Alpine collection ( http://archive.org/details/tobacco_ujq74e00), which is possibly more sophisticated in its humour. Still, for putting a wide-smile on your face, and for inherent interest, the Spud ads are probably superior, with only one real dud, the football sequence.Ten ads in nine minutes from “the Philip Morris people” starting with three animated sequences set to a foot-tapping jingle, sung by a foot-stomping potato:“Oh listen to me ladyListen to me bud,If you want to be mouth happyThen you want to smoke Spud”Then Mr Spud takes us on a tour of the cigarette factory, followed by a short, then an ad in the shower. Smoking in the shower? It’s corny, the acting and inflections are lame, but it’s different and comes across okay.The football sequence (06.30) is the dud in this collection.The final ad is hypnotic. It’s hard not to keep staring at the guy trying to hypnotise you into buying Spuds. And when he says: “New Spud, by the makers of Marlboro” you realise that all these ads, coming out of the same production house as the Marlboro Man ads, are not wholly frivolous. Spuds are purposely being associated with Philip Morris’s premiere brand, Marlboro; and by using the cachet of Marlboro, they’re hoping to attract customers away from their competitor, Kool.In the world of cigarette commercials, these ads are classic. I’m viewing them 45 years after they were made, and aside from the football dud, they still hold a viewer’s interest.