If you watch Mad Men, it seems like there were no boundaries when it came to smoking cigarettes in the mid 20th century in the United States. I'm wondering about laws and general cultural permissiveness towards smoking cigarettes at that time. Were there areas of the US or specific places where smoking was looked down upon or not allowed? And were there a significant amount of people who were against it?
I don't know if this qualifies as a 'personal anecdote' as such, but anybody who remembers the early 90s can tell you that most restaurants, even fast food places, had a thing called 'the smoking section' (or in some cases the 'non-smoking section,' if you were unlucky,) which vanished around 1995-6. McDonalds banned smoking in 1994, Dairy Queen and Arbys in late 1993. US law demanding that the 'no smoking' signs be lit permanently on planes was only established in 1989.
So essentially, yes. Up until the 90s you could smoke pretty much anywhere and get away with it.
But if that's not good enough, let the numbers do the talking: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/figures/m5916a3f1.gif
I assume the CDC is a qualified source.
http://www.nytimes.com/1994/02/24/us/mcdonald-s-bans-smoking-at-all-the-sites-it-owns.html
http://www.nytimes.com/1988/04/17/us/smoking-ban-near-on-flights-in-us.html
Yes, it was, all over the world (I was born in 1975 and graduated in Advertising and have worked for it for 20 years) but let me put Mad Men in a realistic perspective to you: cigarette company accounts were HUGE. Landing one such account was a dream job for many years. And if you have noticed the practice, clients used (some still do) to gift their products to the ad agency so they would know it well. That means that workers at Sterling Cooper would not only have limitless cigarette packs for free but also smoke them AND promote them to family and friends. You never see them actually buying packs in the TV show. So they would be heavy smokers in a disproportionate fashion to general public by default. If you work for Philip Morris you are EXPECTED to be a smoker. Add the stressful typical atmosphere in any agency and even non smokers became chain smokers. I don't have the bibliography by now but when I was in college in the 90s the teachers drilled us into believing that advertising cigarettes wasn't anti ethical because kids and non smokers weren't the primary target of campaigns. Unfortunately the books are now out of print for decades but you can still try to find some autobiographies of ad men that worked for big cigarette companies.
Cigarette advertising on television and sponsorship of sporting events were a big deal. Most big F1 racing teams had tobacco money behind them. NASCAR's championship was the Winston Cup for many years. It was not uncommon to see professional athletes smoking.
Even beloved Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble made cigarette commercials as seen here circa 1961
During WWII the entire output of the Zippo Lighter Company was sent to the military. They were not available to civilians. You could buy one off of a supply ship on Iwo Jima, but not in Manhattan.
I was watching the Everly Brothers perform live on what I think was the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and after they finished they walked over to the couch and lit up a cigarette right there with the host while they were interviewed. Can't find the video again though
