Everything is connected.
The other day we discussed commercials selling sugary cereal to kids and a commenter wondered if someday they would go the way of cigarette commercials. Coincidentally, in today’s TIME my column discusses the AMC advertising drama Mad Men, which includes a fictional scene about the creation of the Lucky Strike “It’s Toasted” campaign. (In real life, it dates back decades earlier.) And more coincidentally, yesterday I was at the Paley Center for Media, researching an unrelated project, and came across an old Jack Benny episode that opened with–you guessed it–a commercial for Lucky Strikes, with a wholesome young woman lighting up heartily:
For the taste that you like
Light up a Lucky Strike
Right now
It’s light-up time!
I wasn’t able to find video of it online–I guess not quite everything is available on YouTube after all–so this will have to do instead. They’re so cute and cancery!
Finally, to complete the circle, my column is also about ABC’s ad-turned-sitcom Cavemen, and what better note to end the week on than this spot, which explains how at least one set of our evolutionary ancestors went extinct: