Ballyhoo and Mad Magazine
- Satirical magazines such as Ballyhoo and MAD Magazine were rife with parodies of smoking advertisements and the social faux pas of smoking, especially when tobacco was in the headlines after the release of the Surgeon General’s Report on Smoking Health in 1964 and the litigations surrounding the Master Settlement Agreement in the 1990s.
Ballyhoo
First published in 1931 Ballyhoo featured one-off cartoons of a scandalous of humourous nature, and parody articles and advertisements. The humor magazine became so popular (reaching a circulation of two million readers) it began to attract actual advertisers. The editors of Ballyhoo had been reluctant at first to accept advertisements but insisted that any placed ads in the magazine would need to meet the satirical style of the fake advertisements. As a result, many of the real advertisements became indistinguishable from the send-ups.
Ballyhoo would discontinue publication in 1939, with two efforts to restart the publication between 1948 and 1954. Ballyhoo‘s spiritual successor would be MAD Magazine, which would adopt Ballyhoo’s magazine-style format the year before Ballyhoo went out of print for the last time in 1954.
For The Occasion Smoker
Parody
Ballyhoo
October, 1931
Hesterfield
Parody
Ballyhoo
November, 1931
Snarlboro
Parody
Ballyhoo
December, 1931
Cream of the Crop
Advertisement
Lucky Strike
American Tobacco Company
1932
Cream of the Crap
Parody
Ballyhoo
January, 1932
Scremo Cigars
Parody
Ballyhoo
December, 1931
“Ducky Wuckies are the Nerts”
Parody
Ballyhoo
January, 1932
Snarlboro
Parody
Ballyhoo
February, 1932
Old Gold’s Pledge to Contestants
Advertisement
P. Lorillard Company
May, 1937
Old Gold Contest
Letter
P. Lorillard Company
May, 1937
Old Colds
Parody
Ballyhoo
July, 1932
MAD Magazine
First published in 1955, MAD was the spiritual successor to Ballyhoo, a humor magazine (published on and off between 1931 and 1954) aimed at a college-age readership. Ballyhoo was one of the first periodical to publish trenchant parodies of cigarette advertisements. MAD continued this tradition and ridiculed such things as filters on cigarettes and tobacco industry executives who testified in Congress that nicotine is not addictive.
You Would Be One Of My Top Choices For A Nobel Prize In Medicine
Letter
Alan Blum To William M Gaines Publisher Mad Magazine
October 29, 1985
Mad Magazine Had Been An Inspiration For My Own Approach To Tackling The Smoking And Drug Abuse Pandemic Among Adolescents
Letter
Alan Blum To William M Gaines Publisher Mad Magazine
April 24, 1985
Men of America The Skid-Row Bums
Parody
MAD Magazine
1959
Parliamatch
Parody
MAD Magazine
October, 1959
Some MAD Devices For Safer Smoking
Cartoon
MAD Magazine
December, 1964
Why Not Warnings On All Packages
Cartoon
MAD Magazine
December, 1964
The MAD Non-Smokers Hate Book
Cartoon
MAD Magazine
July, 1971
The Great Cigarette Filter Tip War
Cartoon
MAD Magazine
June, 1964
The Tobacco Industry
Cartoon
MAD Magazine
Undated
When You’re Dying For A Cigarette
Cartoon
MAD Magazine
1968
Six Minutes Looks At Smoking
Cartoon
MAD Magazine
January, 1990
Choke Magazine
Cartoon
MAD Magazine
September, 1990
The Only Doctor I Know Who Still Smokes
Cartoon
MAD Magazine
March, 1990
Some Straight Talk About Selling Cigarettes To A Hostile Public
Parody
Billy Doherty
MAD Magazine
Summer, 1991
MAD Interviews The Tobacco Executive Of The Year
Cartoon
MAD Magazine
December, 1995
The Tomb Of The Unknown Smoker
Parody
MAD Magazine
August, 1995
Cancer Of The Hump
Poster
MAD Magazine
August, 1995
The Tobacco Industry’s Secret Marketing Plans For Attracting Young Smokers
Cartoon
MAD Magazine
November, 1996
Cigar Addictionado
Parody
MAD Magazine
June, 1998
Only A True Cigar Lover
Parody
MAD Magazine
June, 1998