Cartoonists Take Up Smoking Logo Square
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BALLYHOO and MAD Magazine

  • A major inspiration for this exhibition was MAD Magazine. First published by William Gaines as a comic book in 1952, MAD, originally edited by Harvey Kurtzman then by Al Feldstein from 1957 to 1985, 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 periodicals to publish trenchant parodies of cigarette advertisements.
  • After converting to a magazine in 1955, MAD continued this tradition, parodying cigarette advertising and mocking the tobacco industry for decades while most print media, including The New York TimesTIME MagazineSports Illustrated, and Newsweek courted tobacco companies for their lucrative cigarette advertising dollars in full-page ads in theUS Tobacco and Candy Journal, an industry trade magazine.
  • MAD, which did not accept advertising in its eight issues a year from 1957 to 2001, ridiculed the industry’s health claims for cigarette filters, weak warning labels on cigarette packs, and tobacco industry executives who testified in Congress that nicotine is not addictive. At its peak in 1974, MAD achieved a circulation of 2.1 million. The rise of the internet deeply cut into print magazine readership. MAD ceased publication in 2018.
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BALLYHOO

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 cigarettes
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, Old Gold cigarettes
P. Lorillard Company
May, 1937

Old Gold Contest

Letter
P. Lorillard Company
May, 1937

Old Colds

Parody
BALLYHOO
July, 1932

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MAD Magazine

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 an inspiration for tackling the smoking 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

Satire
MAD Magazine
December, 1964

Why Not Warnings on All Packages!

Satire
MAD Magazine
December, 1964

The MAD Non-Smokers Hate Book

Satire
MAD Magazine
July, 1971

The Great Cigarette Filter Tip War (2 pages)

Cartoon
MAD Magazine
June, 1964

The Tobacco Industry

Cartoon
MAD Magazine
October, 1979

When You’re Dying For A Cigarette

Cartoon
MAD Magazine
1968

Six Minutes Looks At Smoking (3 pages)

Satire
MAD Magazine
January, 1990

n.d. Mad Magazine Smoke Mag. Ad Parody

CHOKE Magazine

Satire
MAD Magazine
September, 1990

You’re the only doctor I know who still smokes

Cartoon
MAD Magazine
March, 1990

Some straight Talk about selling cigarettes to a hostile public.

Parody
MAD Magazine
Summer, 1991

MAD Interviews the Tobacco Executive of the Year (3 pages)

Satire
MAD Magazine
December, 1995

The Tomb of the Unknown Smoker

Satire
MAD Magazine
August, 1995

MAD‘s Great Moments in Advertising

Parody
MAD Magazine
August, 1995

The Tobacco Industry’s Secret Marketing Plans for Attracting Young Smokers

Satire
MAD Magazine
November, 1996

Cigar Addictionado

Parody
MAD Magazine
June, 1998

Only A True Cigar Lover

Parody
MAD Magazine
June, 1998

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