Forgive me, reader, for I am sinning by writing anything decent and somewhat complimentary about a cigarette product commercial. But, being an active member of my county's Tobacco Free Alliance, doing everything to help crush cigs wherever they may be, I ask for a waiver.
Give Jack Benny some credit. Lucky Strike was his sponsor for, I'd say, at least half of his radio program's duration and all of his television shows. And even though his years in showbiz were years of "everyone does it," regarding tobacco use, Jack never was seen puffing a Lucky or making complimentary remarks about smoking his advertiser's product. He had nearly all his commercials done by Don Wilson, his sidekick announcer, or the Sportsmen's Quartet.
As commercials go creatively, on pushing a product, the Lucky commercials were catchy, which is what advertising is all about. The Lucky Strike jingle still sticks in my mind, (but most jingles do, I being a jingle addict):
Not much creativity in the words, but the tune, a real bouncy number, made a listener have a happy feel, just as the song tells one to do-- along with buying the product, of course. More memorable was the portion, always used at the beginning of Jack's radio shows, of the tobacco auctioneer. Fascinating to hear someone speak so fast it would make one wonder who could understand it, but the pitch would end with, "Sold, American!" Announcer Don Wilson would follow with, "The Lucky Strike program, with Jack Benny, Phil Harris, Rochester, Mary Livingston, Dennis Day and the Sportsmen Quartet. The program begins with...(he would name a tune, which would play very briefly until Wilson came back for a bit more).
The Sportsmen's Quartet was a bit creative and fun. They would neatly work a commercial into a radio and TV show by making it part of the show's theme or tying it in with something culturally familiar. They did sound like a bunch of sportsmen, like a bunch of guys in a locker room or out on a camping trip harmonizing. My visual focus was always centered on the ham-faced, blond guy, the tallest one, who was one of the middle guys. It was not common to see such a mug in a singing group, but he looked like he was having fun.
For entertainment interest, the Lucky commercials were more so than the Jello ones. Yet, I remember clearly at the beginning of the show when Jello sponsored Benny, a chorus singing, "J-E-L-L-Ohhhh"! Then Don Wilson would come again, introducing the Benny cast, as he did for Lucky Strike. Then Benny would follow and say, "Jell-O again, this is Jack Benny." I had a friend who would always greet me by saying, "Jell-O again." He was an old classics radio fan, as am I.
There was a time on Benny's TV show when Lucky commercials really shifted focus. A cute blond, who looked a bit like June Allyson, sang a ditty,"Luckies, taste better." A chorus would follow, "fresher, smoother flavor." Then it went on, briefly and without much creativity. It just seemed too ordinary. Other than the cutie, it didn't register, but that particular commercial was when I was at the hot adolescent age and had TV to notice cuties.
Having spent my teaching career teaching history, I know we must guard against condemning cultural things which circumstances, or just "in those days", made some questionable or forbidden things completely acceptable back then. Cigarettes are not only banned from radio/TV today, but are on the verge of possibly being eradicated from American society, either by the public finally getting the message or by legislative action. Cigarette commercials and smoking were commonly accepted prior to the 70s when the clamp-down began with Surgeon General warnings and eradication from television advertising, thanks to Congress. Good move. More such moves need to be taken, but for historical interest, Lucky Strike did have, at least for me, some commercial classic memories. I look forward to classic change though, in our society, to the snuffing out of the last cigarette.