13 Comments on “Camel Cigarette’s Jumpin Jeeps Ad”

1. Kevin March 5, 2010 at 5:27 am

   I’m not that old, but the airlines used to hand out pack’s of 5 cigarettes to passengers for free, and cigarettes where in “C” Rations during WWII. I find it interesting that advertised the amount of nicotine in the ad.
2. deilers March 5, 2010 at 8:40 am

   I was surprised about the nicotine reference interesting as well.
3. Kevin March 5, 2010 at 9:53 am

   Perhaps Camels would have 28% less, they are shorter by that amount in length…but I didn’t think they cared about nicotine positive or negative…28% less must have been used as an advertising gimic meaning they might be better for you??? because of less, and if nicotine was bad back then, why has it taken this long to get the message out…even though the Surgeon General made them put warnings on a pack around 1968’ish.
4. deilers March 5, 2010 at 10:40 am

   Kevin — thanks for raising this point — because of this, I discovered my next read, The Nazi War on Cancer.

   The quick answer to your question would be that the tobacco industry had too much momentum — historical, political, social and economic. I don’t mean this as a condemnation or as a conspiracy theory of some kind; instead, the industry had enough success and power to discourage the point-of-view that their products appeared to cause health issues.

   In fact, a little bit of research I did on this topic revealed that the 1930s & 40s Nazi Germany “promoted smoke-free public places, advertising restrictions and epidemiology linking smoking to lung cancer, infertility and heart disease” (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2736555/). I suspect this was related to the nutritional & cancer research being done in Europe from the turn of the century forward, research which was dismissed and forgotten (for example, Nazi health officials worried about asbestos-induced lung cancer; they also recommended bans on carcinogenic pesticides and food dyes).

   Perhaps a contemporary example would illuminate the challenges faced by the anti-smoking champions of the past. What if I could present 100 years of research that the milk the average American consumes and the cereal the average American consumes is so low nutritionally that it contributes to the current heath crisis in U.S. by exacerbating cancer, diabetes, and weight gain. How could we change this enormous food machine? What would the economic implications be of shutting down the consumption of these two food items? (btw — after doing my research on food, I no longer eat cereal and I only drink raw or non-homogenized grass fed milk).

   — Dave
5. Kevin March 5, 2010 at 6:06 pm

   Interesting…..very interesting
   Thanks!
6. Idaho Todd March 20, 2015 at 4:29 am

   Hey fellas, this is ewillys, not eletshavasmoke. Just kidding! I’m not that old either and remember one of my gradeschool teachers talking about Camel brand cigarettes. They were banned from using a Camel as there mascot because of how it was perceived by children. Pretty interesting and how times have changed. By the way, the last of four men that portrayed the marlboro man in their ads just past away in January of this year. He was 83. And yes, all the marlboro actors died from cigarette smoking related causes. Bummer. And now, back to healthier jeep stuff…
7. Roberto Flores March 20, 2015 at 6:21 am

   I love the artwork! It´s fantastic!!!
8. SE Pennsylvania Steve March 20, 2015 at 7:34 am

   No cigarette ashtrays in my CJ-2a, Dave. But I think I’ve seen pics of old coffee cans screwed onto dashboards here on eWillys!
   I guess most smokers flicked their ashes & butts out their topless jeeps as they drove along…
9. keith March 20, 2015 at 8:02 am

   There was actually a CJ2A factory approved Ashtray installation kit.
   What I found interesting was the reference to the Willys Overland Scout Car Division…

   I actually have a surviving label from a Jeep brand Cigarette Pack.
10. Colin Peabody March 20, 2015 at 12:25 pm

    The 1946-early 50 Jeep Station wagons and trucks had an ashtray in the dash above the speedometer cluster. The Jeepsters did not, but had an optional unit that mounted below the dash. In 1950, with the new dash, all of them could have ashtrays below the instruments. You could get optional round ashtrays for the rear passengers in the station wagons and Jeepsters from 1948 on. I have two of those mounted in my 48 Jeepster, but none in the front! It does have a factory cigarette lighter!
11. Buz March 20, 2015 at 8:20 pm

    In a similar line of thought about Jeeps and smoking, about 1985 I bought a decent running M38A1 from a long haired hippy type mechanic who worked at the same Ford dealership as I did, he had spun the jeep around on the road with his girl friend and hard 30 year old NDT tires. She would not ride with him in it anymore. I took the jeep out to the farm and it was about a month later that I noticed a large marijuana plant growing in the jeep between the front seats where there was plenty of dirt from driving off road. The seeds that sprouted the plant probable came from what he was smoking at the same time he was driving the jeep and spinning it around.
12. deilers Post authorMarch 20, 2015 at 11:05 pm

    Sounds like a Magic Mystery Jeep to me Buz.
13. MacWilly March 21, 2015 at 8:20 am

    Hey Buz, you never mentioned what became of the plant you found?