April 1, 1970
President Nixon signs legislation banning cigarette ads on TV and radio. On April 1, 1970, President Richard Nixon signs legislation officially banning cigarette ads on television and radio.

1987
Cinemas: Rank Leisure was the first major chain to provide smoke-free cinemas; 1987 Cannon-ABC bans smoking in 1987. Post Offices: Made smoke-free in 1979. Hotels: In 1984, Ash (Action on Smoking and Health)produced a guide to 244 hotels and guest houses that are smoke-free.

1967
The Modern Era of Tobacco Control In 1967, anti-smoking advertisements began to air on television as part of a Federal Communications Commission Fairness Doctrine ruling requiring broadcasters to run an anti-smoking advertisement for every cigarette ad aired (15, 16).

Serial entrepreneur Elon Musk is credited as Executive Producer of Thank You for Smoking. His participation was discussed during episode #1470 of the Joe Rogan Experience podcast with Musk as Rogan’s guest.

He also never smoked, and after a twelve-year run as a Marlboro Man, quit the role to avoid badly influencing his children. He died, age 90, in 2019.

Magazines are free to accept advertising from tobacco companies. But a 1998 settlement between the four largest tobacco companies and 46 U.S. states created broad restrictions on the marketing of cigarettes, including language that prohibited the targeting of youth.

Ireland was the first country in the world to introduce a total smoking ban in 2004. The initiative made smoking in enclosed workplaces illegal, punishable by a fine of up to 3,000 euros (£2,157). The ban has has led to copycat laws across the globe. Scotland became the first country in the UK to follow in 2006.

Nazi Germany
Not renowned for its public health measures, Nazi Germany led the first anti-smoking campaign in modern history and was the most powerful anti-smoking movement in the world during the 1930s and early 1940s.

The history of smoking dates back to as early as 5000 BC in the Americas in shamanistic rituals. With the arrival of the Europeans in the 16th century, the consumption, cultivation, and trading of tobacco quickly spread.

Thank You for Smoking is a novel by Christopher Buckley, first published in 1994, which tells the story of the fictional character Nick Naylor, a tobacco lobbyist during the 1990s.

Sorry, Thank You for Smoking is not available on American Netflix.

From books on quitting smoking, to patches, chewing gums and hypnosis, these anti-smoking ads find their niche. From showing graphic images of the damage caused by smoking to appealing to the smokers’ children – these advertisement examples have tried it all.

The silhouette then takes a drag on a fag (that’s British slang for a cigarette, not the other one) of which smoke starts to fill his spongy lungs, causing them to blacken and fill with tar. “But some people use their lungs to suck up cigarette smoke” the chilling voice continues.

Even though the answer isn’t a simple yes or no, multiple studies done in the last decade have shown that anti-smoking campaigns are still the most cost-effective way to at least deter new smokers from joining the club, especially when the people in question are the youth.

If you think this commercial is bad, wait until we get to the ones where they start cutting up real smokers brains, lungs and arteries – yummy! This 2007 advert is a more modern adaptation of the original ‘Sponge’ advert from 1985.