Be sure to Google the Winston ads starring the Flintstones too!

I hope junk food and soda ads are seen in the same light 30 years from now.

Anna,
I suspect and hope they will. The twentieth century was the high point of modernity, defined as man’s ability and desire to control nature through technology. Thus, the mass production of things like cigarettes and food goods is modern to the core. We’ve learned how bad for the human body tobacco can be, and have in the US made strides to curb smoking (Europe being perhaps 10-20 years behind us). Only now, it seems, are people in the US really starting to realize that the mass production of food goods as well their genetic manipulation might be very, very bad (Europe is ahead of us on this). Transfats fell hard several years ago, Whole Foods is an established chain, and we’re now in a situation where Wal-Mart, for better or worse, is pushing organics, and that suggests to me that a cultural shift regarding food is underway. I don’t think we’ll ever go back to the 1800s — and I don’t think we should with regards to many things, like raw milk — but I do think we’ll be more sensitive to the goodness of nature, the risks of fooling with it, and the necessity of living and eating in fundamental harmony with it. Perhaps.

It should also be noted that the actress Bea Benaderet, Cousin Pearl in the last commercial (and the original voice of Betty Rubble), died of lung cancer.

This raises a good point Rod. Most people (even smokers) now agree and admit that advertising tobacco via TV shows has an impact on kids. Yet most will actively deny that immoral & violent behavior (promoted as “normal” & “good”) that spews forth on our TV screens every night will have any impact.
Seriously people. Wake up to what this is doing to our generation.

Irenaeus,
I spend regular time in a cancer clinic waiting room. My mother has late stage non-smoking related lung cancer. Seeing the various patients in the room, some younger, most middle-old age, gives me ample evidence at how “disjointed” our approach to food and medicine has become. Yesterday was particularly mind-bending for me. I felt like I was plopped down in the middle of 1984 or Brave New World with myself as the protagonist trying to wrestle free of the collective human mind-sludge. Today is senior’s day at Kroger. More than half the carts are chock-o-block full of soda. My mother pretty much lives on HFCS drinks, soy yogurt, Lactaid milk, chocolate and fast food. The doctors say NOTHING about what she should eat. Even if they did, she probably wouldn’t do it.
The only way I keep my sanity in this mess is to visit the farmers’ market regularly and hug the people who raise/grow my food.

I was reminded by someone else how Granny always used to be involved in the Occult on the show, as well. Really weird.

If I recall correctly, Mary Tyler Moore got her start on TV as a dancing pack of Old Gold cigarettes in an ad.

Be sure to Google the Winston ads starring the Flintstones too!
No need, I had some time on my hands:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=flintstones+cigarette+commercial&aq=0

Irenaeus,
Unlike tobacco, food is necessary for life. We can’t treat it the same we do cigarettes. And while there’s plenty of reason to complain about the quality of food, complaining about its quantity has horrifying implications: without mass produced food we would have mass starvation.