More Adverstalgia: Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em

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: