Ad Campaign – Chesterfield, 1942

In wartime, more than ever, a satisfying smoke is a comfort and a pleasure.  It means a lot to men in the Service and to men and women everywhere.

Here’s a war time ad that has it all:   war bonds poster, attractive woman in a uniform, patriotic jargon and a reminder that the product is “On the Nation’s Front.”

In the US, cigarettes were not rationed, but they could be hard to come by because most of the production was going into soldiers’ ration kits.  My father entered the army in 1944 as a 17 year old.  Grandmother Lizzie agreed to let him go as long as he promised two things:  no tattoos and no smoking.  He resisted the tattoo, but the lure of free cigarettes was just too much.